Title: Petrol Bomb

Artist: Banksy

Medium: Lithograph / screenprint

Era: Early 2000s (Banksy’s formative commercial print period)

A Molotov cocktail labeled “TESCO Value – PETROL BOMB – Highly Flammable.”

This is classic Banksy satire — combining:

• Consumerism (Tesco Value branding)

• Political violence (Molotov cocktail)

• Corporate mass production imagery

Interestingly, I bought this small, original stencil and spray paint canvas painting prior to the pandemic. However, it made even more sense to me after the pandemic. Keying off Edvard Munch’s famous painting “The Scream”, it captured the essence of what we all felt having to wear masks wherever we went. It’s still a little reminder of that crazy time in our lives. Munch’s painting is his most famous and interestingly, it has been stolen many, many times over the years. Much like the Mona Lisa, books can be written about how these incredible art heists took place!

I love how he cuts the canvas with a knife and the builds the image around the hole in the canvas. Stencils and spray paint make this one pop a bit. Love original paintings as they have so much more depth and texture compared to prints. He is reasonably affordable compared to some contemporary artists.

One of Banksy’s most famous prints, fondly known as LIITA, these signed versions skyrocket to $400,000 or so during the pandemic era. Much more reasonable now in the $100.000 range (but still super expensive). This is actually a good buy, to be fair to get a signed iconic image from one of the best and most prolific artists or our time.