Banksy mural selling for $400,000 after being removed from London shop — wall and all

A graffiti mural thought to have been created by artist Banksy has been removed from a London shop wall and has appeared on the website of a Miami auction house.

The art in question first appeared on the side of a London shop during celebrations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and “its imagery was considered a critique of the ‘real-life’ discomfort and sweatshop conditions behind the cosy, nostalgic British iconography of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee,” writes Wired magazine.

The art was removed, wall and all, last week and it appeared at the Miami-based liveauctioneers.com, with a starting bid of $400,000 and an estimated value of between $500,000-700,000. The piece is now titled: “Banksy Slave Labor (Bunting Boy), London, 2012.”

The Fine Art Auctions owner told Wired that the art came from an anonymous collector who had documents to back up the fact that he owned the piece.

Meanwhile, London councillors are trying to figure out if there is any way to prevent the mural from going up for sale in Miami, reports BBC News. But Arts Council London says that since the mural is less than 50 years old, and is “excluded from Export Control under current rules,” it is not able to intervene.

The store from which the graffiti was removed, Poundland (a.k.a. a dollar store), says that it does not own the building and was not aware that the mural was being removed.

The mural goes up for sale on the weekend.