Love Is in the Air (Flower Thrower)

A bouquet where the bomb should be

The image is a single, loaded gesture. A young man in a backward cap, a bandana pulled over the lower half of his face, leans into the throw of a rioter. Everything in the pose says brick or Molotov cocktail. What leaves his hand is a bunch of flowers, and it is the only part of the figure rendered in color.

Banksy stenciled it in 2003 on the side of a garage in Beit Sahour, close to the barrier Israel had begun building through the West Bank in 2002. Sources do not fully agree on the place: one catalog essay and most guides put it in Beit Sahour, an art-market guide says Jerusalem, and a scholarly article describes a version painted in Bethlehem in 2005.

The figure was not new to Banksy. The art historian Ulrich Blanche records an earlier frontal version photographed as 'Flower Bomber, Bristol 1999' and shown in his first exhibition in February 2000. The image has been linked to photographs of the 1960s street protests, including Bruno Barbey's pictures of Paris in May 1968, and a 2021 catalog essay notes that the thrower's pose recalls the angel statue at the Shepherds' Field Chapel in Beit Sahour, the traditional site of the angel's announcement to the shepherds.

A resident is reported to have told Banksy while he was painting on the wall, 'We don't want it to be beautiful, we hate this wall. Go home.' The line has followed the image ever since, a reminder that the protest it stages was painted on someone else's street.

The artist with no face

Banksy is a pseudonymous, England-based street artist who has never publicly confirmed his identity. He started as a freehand graffiti writer in Bristol in the early 1990s with the DryBreadZ Crew, and by 2000 had turned to stencils because they let him finish a piece far faster, a practical choice for an artist working where he could be arrested.

In 2003, the year of this print, he staged an exhibition called Turf War in a London warehouse and painted on live animals for it. By 2005 the flower thrower was on the cover of his book Wall and Piece, and in August of that year he painted nine more images on the West Bank barrier, including a ladder going over the wall and children digging a hole through it.

His relationship with the region did not end there. In 2017 he opened the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, advertised as having the worst view of any hotel in the world, with every bedroom facing the wall. A gold-framed flower thrower triptych, decorated with real dried flowers, hung in its piano bar.

The 2003 print and the numbers nobody agrees on

Pictures on Walls, the London print house behind Banksy's early editions, published the image in 2003 as a screenprint in red and black on wove paper, the black-and-white figure set against a flat red ground. The sheet measures 50 by 70 centimeters.

How many were signed is the print's open question. Most guides give a signed edition of 150 alongside an unsigned edition of 500; an encyclopedia entry gives 150 signed and 600 unsigned. One detailed catalog says instead that the edition was 500, of which only 50 were signed, plus 27 signed artist's proofs. Its auction records support that reading in one respect: signed sheets sold at auction carry numbers out of 500, such as 11/500, 43/500 and 49/500, rather than out of 150.

The same catalog notes two details that set this edition apart from most Pictures on Walls releases of the period. The sheets carry no publisher's blindstamp, and the signed impressions, signed in black pen at lower right, are not necessarily numbered within the first fifty. Some signed sheets are 'asides,' outside the numbered run, and some carry inscriptions: one sold in 2011 reads 'Jake thanks Banks,' another sold in 2024 reads 'ART IS DOG FOOD LOVE IS ALL YOU WANT.'

The motif was also used in 2003 over a red CCCP, an edition of about 8 to 10 known as CCCP Love Is in the Air; one sold at auction in London on July 13, 2023, for GBP 53,340.

From a few thousand pounds to a record and back

For most of its first decade the signed print traded quietly. Impression 6/500 sold in London in April 2008 for GBP 9,360 ($18,365), and impression 31/500 brought GBP 8,400 in 2010. By 2014 signed sheets were selling for about $25,000 in New York and Ireland.

The boom of 2020 and 2021 changed the scale. On April 1, 2021, impression 11/500, estimated at GBP 50,000 to 70,000 in an online sale, sold for GBP 475,000 ($655,500), still the auction record for a standard signed impression. An artist's proof, AP/17, had brought $687,500 at auction in New York in December 2020. Even unsigned impressions reached GBP 214,200.

Then the market came down. A signed impression sold for GBP 189,000 in April 2022. Impression 43/500, marked DN for a duplicate number, sold in London in December 2023 for GBP 114,700 and was back at auction in London a year later, selling on December 10, 2024, for GBP 63,900 ($83,070), about 13 percent of the 2021 peak by one catalog's measure. That catalog records no qualifying signed sale in 2025 or 2026.

Bigger versions of the image set bigger numbers. A 2005 oil and spray paint canvas, 90 by 90 centimeters with hand-painted flowers, illustrated in Wall and Piece and bought from its London dealer in 2006, was offered at auction in New York in May 2021 against an estimate of $3 million to $5 million, with the option of paying the hammer price in bitcoin or ether. It sold for $12,903,000, and the buyer reportedly paid in cryptocurrency. The Walled Off Hotel triptych, which Elton John bought directly from Banksy in 2017, sold at auction in New York in 2024 for $1,925,500.

The image Banksy tried to own

The flower thrower is also a legal case. In 2014 Pest Control, the company that authenticates and handles Banksy's work, secured a European Union trademark for the image. A UK greeting card company, Full Colour Black, brought a cancellation action, and in 2019 Banksy opened a pop-up shop called Gross Domestic Product in Croydon, selling homewares carrying his images.

It did not work. On September 14, 2020, the European Union Intellectual Property Office ruled for Full Colour Black, finding the trademark invalid because it had been filed in bad faith; the panel was not persuaded that the shop showed a real intention to use the mark. Banksy had written that the card company was 'attempting to take custody of my name, so they can sell their fake Banksy merchandise legally.'

How to know a signed impression

A genuine sheet measures about 50 by 70 centimeters, printed in red and black, with the flowers the only colored element of the figure. It is numbered out of 500 in pencil at lower right and, if signed, signed in black pen at lower right. Unlike most Pictures on Walls editions of these years it carries no publisher's blindstamp, so the absence of one is not by itself a warning sign here.

Artist's proofs are marked AP, asides are signed outside the numbered run, and DN marks a duplicate number. Pest Control became the only point of sale for Banksy's new work in May 2009 and issues certificates of authenticity; major sales of his work are accompanied by one.

The numbers

Medium

Screenprint in red and black on wove paper; no publisher's blindstamp

Dimensions

Sheet 50 x 70 cm (19 3/4 x 27 1/2 in)

Edition

Run numbered /500 in pencil; signed impressions given as 150 by most guides or 50 by one catalog; 27 signed artist's proofs

Catalogue raisonne

None stated; impressions are identified by edition number, signature and Pest Control certificate

Current owners

Dispersed among private collectors; no public collection holding is documented in the sources

Timeline

1. 1999

   An earlier frontal version is photographed as 'Flower Bomber, Bristol 1999,' later shown in Banksy's first exhibition in February 2000.

2. 2002

   Israel begins building the West Bank barrier.

3. 2003

   Banksy stencils the flower thrower on the side of a garage in Beit Sahour, near the barrier.

4. 2003

   Pictures on Walls publishes Love Is in the Air as a red-and-black screenprint, 50 x 70 cm.

5. 2005

   The image is the cover of Banksy's book Wall and Piece; a 90 x 90 cm canvas version is dated 06/05/05.

6. Apr 16, 2008

   Signed impression 6/500 sells at auction in London for GBP 9,360.

7. May 2009

   Banksy names Pest Control as the only point of sale for his new work.

8. 2014

   Pest Control secures an EU trademark for the flower thrower.

9. 2017

   The Walled Off Hotel opens in Bethlehem, with a flower thrower triptych in its piano bar.

10. 2019

    Banksy opens the Gross Domestic Product pop-up shop in Croydon during the trademark dispute.

11. Sep 14, 2020

    The EU Intellectual Property Office rules the trademark invalid as filed in bad faith.

12. Dec 3, 2020

    Artist's proof AP/17 sells at auction in New York for $687,500.

13. Apr 1, 2021

    Signed impression 11/500 sells online for GBP 475,000 ($655,500), the record for a standard signed impression.

14. May 2021

    The 2005 canvas sells at auction in New York for $12,903,000, with cryptocurrency accepted.

15. Dec 12, 2023

    Impression 43/500 DN sells at auction in London for GBP 114,700.

16. 2024

    The Walled Off Hotel triptych, owned by Elton John since 2017, sells at auction in New York for $1,925,500.

17. Dec 10, 2024

    Impression 43/500 DN resells in London for GBP 63,900 ($83,070).

The world in 2003

• Feb 1, 2003

  Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry over Texas, killing all seven crew.

• Feb 15, 2003

  Millions of people worldwide join anti-war protests ahead of an invasion of Iraq.

• Mar 20, 2003

  A coalition led by the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia invades Iraq.

• Apr 9, 2003

  U.S. forces seize control of Baghdad, ending Saddam Hussein's rule.

• Apr 14, 2003

  The Human Genome Project is completed.

• Oct 24, 2003

  Concorde makes its last commercial flight.

• Dec 13, 2003

  Saddam Hussein is captured near Ad-Dawr by the U.S. Army.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Love Is in the Air (Flower Thrower) is number 49 of 100 in the art entries of the FLOAT 100. 88 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (42 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The 2005 canvas of the image was reported as the first physical artwork auctioned with the option to pay in bitcoin or ether; it sold for $12,903,000.
• Banksy lost the EU trademark on his own flower thrower in 2020 after a greeting card company challenged it.
• The flowers are the only colored part of the figure; a 2021 catalog essay reads their colors as those of the Israeli and Palestinian flags.
• The same signed sheet, 43/500, sold at auction in London twice in twelve months, for GBP 114,700 and then GBP 63,900.
• Elton John bought a flower thrower triptych directly from Banksy in 2017 and performed remotely at the Walled Off Hotel's opening night.
• At the 2019 Croydon pop-up, a few flower-only versions of the image were given at random to children under 16.