Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus Is Selling a Banksy Original at Auction

Mark Hoppus, the bassist for the California-based pop punk band Blink-182, is a long-time admirer of the enigmatic street artist Banksy. He’s such a fan that some years ago he bought a Banksy original titled Crude Oil (Vettriano). Hoppus is now putting the painting up for auction at Sotheby’s in London next month, where it’s estimated to sell for $6.3 million.

Hoppus, whose band was always closely associated with 2000’s skate culture, says Banksy’s work appealed to him because it had the same rebellious spirit as punk rock and skateboarding. “I feel like street art and punk rock have the same core,” Hoppus told the Associated Press. “The left out and overlooked making their own reality. … It’s the same spirit.”

Mark Hoppus Selling Banksy Original at Art Auction

The painting itself was created in 2005 as a part of a series where the mysterious Banksy remade classic paintings but added a little whimsical, satirical twist to them. Banksy’s Crude Oil is based on The Singing Butler by Scottish artist Jack Vettriano.

The 1992 painting features the image of a dapper couple who appear to be dancing on a beach, the man in an elegant tux and the woman in a slim red ball gown, as a maid and a butler try to keep pace with the duo’s impromptu waltz on the shore. The painting became a massive hit that was reprinted countless times, finding its way onto posters, wall calendars, and all sorts of novelty items.

Banksy’s version maintains much of the original’s core visual elements, like the couple, the butler, the cloudy horizon, and the damp sands, but adds a sinking oil tanker in the background and a couple of guys in hazmat suits transporting an industrial canister filled with toxic waste.

Hoppus and his wife, Skye Everly, bought the piece in 2011, and have had it displayed in their homes in New York and London. The couple have decided to auction it off, promising to direct some of the estimated $6.3 million to a variety of charitable causes, including the California Fire Foundation, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and Cedars Sinai Hematology-Oncology Research.