Napalm (Can't Beat That Feeling)

A photograph everyone already knew

Napalm begins with one of the most widely reproduced news photographs of the 20th century. On June 8, 1972, South Vietnamese aircraft mistakenly dropped napalm on Trang Bang, a village held by North Vietnamese forces. As civilians and soldiers fled, a photographer caught nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc running toward the camera, naked and screaming, her skin burned. The picture, titled The Terror of War and known everywhere as Napalm Girl, won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography and World Press Photo of the Year.

Kim Phuc survived burns covering 30 percent of her body. She later moved to Canada, became a UNESCO ambassador, and was the subject of the 1999 biography The Girl in the Picture.

In 2004 Banksy cut almost everything else out of that frame. The other children and the soldiers are gone. Kim Phuc remains at the center. On either side of her, holding her outstretched hands and grinning, are Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald, the mascots of two of the biggest companies in the world. The alternate title, Can't Beat That Feeling, has the cadence of an advertising slogan and leaves the viewer to decide which feeling it means.

War, mascots and moral distance

The print is mostly monochrome, three colors in Banksy's stencil style, which keeps the documentary look of the original photograph while the two cartoon figures read instantly as brands. Commentators describe the effect as a collision: the child's pain is real and specific, the mascots are artificial and cheerful, and they seem entirely unconcerned by her distress.

Writers on the work tie it to its own moment as well as to Vietnam. One catalog of Banksy's prints reads it as a comment on the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and on the commodification of war. McDonald's and Disney recur as targets throughout Banksy's work as stand-ins for the reach of American consumer culture.

Napalm is unusual within Banksy's output. One market guide notes that the image exists only as a print and was never made as street art. A separate catalog says Damien Hirst acquired an original painted Napalm, while the same market guide says Hirst bought a copy of the print in 2006 for his collection. The sources agree that Hirst owns a version of the image; they differ on which.

The 2004 edition and its variants

The print was released in 2004 as a screenprint in colors on wove paper, sheet size 50 by 70 cm, in a signed edition of 150 and an unsigned edition of 500. Two sets of 27 signed artist's proofs were made in other colorways: an 'orange' proof in which Mickey and Ronald wear orange, and a 'rainbow' proof in which they wear pink ombre outfits. One dealer guide instead gives 600 unsigned prints; most sources give 500.

A special edition followed in 2006. Damien Hirst organized In the Darkest Hour There May Be Light, a show of more than 60 works by 24 artists from his own Murderme collection, at the Serpentine Gallery in London from November 2006 to January 2007. A limited portfolio marked the show, and Napalm appears in it as a signed edition of 50 with 29 artist's proofs. Those Serpentine impressions are a different object from the 2004 signed edition and trade separately.

How to tell them apart: the 2004 signed edition is numbered out of 150 in pencil; the unsigned edition is numbered out of 500; the artist's proofs are marked out of 27 and differ in the mascots' colors; the Serpentine impressions are numbered out of 50 or marked as proofs out of 29. One market tracker flags some lots with 'DN,' meaning a duplicate number.

From a few thousand dollars to six figures

The signed edition first appears in tracked auction records in April 2008, when number 67 sold in London for GBP 11,000, given as $21,755. Prices then fell back: from 2010 through 2013 signed impressions sold in the UK for between $5,665 and $8,350, with the low point in June 2013.

The climb came at the end of the decade. In September 2019 an impression sold online for GBP 27,500 ($34,300) against an estimate of GBP 10,000 to 15,000. In late 2020 results in New Zealand and Hong Kong reached $73,655 and $81,300. On July 5, 2021, number 41 sold in France for EUR 85,800, given as $101,815, the highest dollar figure in the record. On April 26, 2022, number 59 brought GBP 75,600, given as $95,255, the highest sterling result for the signed edition. The sterling record and the dollar high are different sales.

Results have since come down. Signed impressions sold for $35,065 in June 2024, between $22,875 and $29,490 in 2025, and $31,380 in Sweden in April 2026. The most recent tracked sale, in Tokyo on July 3, 2026, was JPY 3,450,000, given as $21,330. The tracker counts 16 transactions in the signed edition since 2018.

The rarer variants sit above the edition. An orange artist's proof, number 7 of 27, sold in London in January 2021 for GBP 81,900, given as $112,355, against an estimate of GBP 20,000 to 30,000.

An image whose source is now contested

In 2025 the photograph Banksy borrowed became the subject of its own dispute. The documentary The Stringer argued that the picture was taken not by the photographer long credited with it but by a Vietnamese freelancer, Nguyen Thanh Nghe. The photographer and his news agency denied the claim, though the agency later softened its position. In May 2025 World Press Photo said it would suspend the attribution of authorship, calling the move a recognition of doubt rather than a retraction.

Commentators on Banksy's print have noted that the argument does not change the image Banksy made, but it adds another layer to a work about who controls pictures of suffering and how they are packaged, circulated and sold.

The numbers

Medium

Screenprint in colors on wove paper

Dimensions

Sheet 50 x 70 cm (19 5/8 x 27 1/2 in.)

Edition

150 signed; also 500 unsigned, 27 orange AP, 27 rainbow AP

Catalogue raisonne

Not stated in the sources reviewed

Owners

An edition of 150 in private hands; no single public owner

Timeline

1. Jun 8, 1972

   The Terror of War is photographed at Trang Bang, South Vietnam.

2. 1973

   The photograph wins the Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography and World Press Photo of the Year.

3. 1999

   Kim Phuc's biography, The Girl in the Picture, is published.

4. 2004

   Banksy releases Napalm: 150 signed, 500 unsigned, and two sets of 27 signed artist's proofs.

5. Nov 2006

   In the Darkest Hour There May Be Light opens at the Serpentine Gallery in London, with a 50-impression special edition of Napalm.

6. Apr 1, 2008

   First tracked auction sale of the signed edition: number 67 sells in London for GBP 11,000 ($21,755).

7. Jun 27, 2013

   Low point in the record: number 111 sells in the UK for GBP 3,720 ($5,665).

8. Sep 24, 2019

   Number 33 sells online for GBP 27,500 ($34,300), well above its estimate.

9. Jan 21, 2021

   An orange artist's proof, 7/27, sells in London for GBP 81,900 ($112,355).

10. Jul 5, 2021

    Number 41 sells in France for EUR 85,800 ($101,815), the highest dollar figure for the signed edition.

11. Apr 26, 2022

    Number 59 sells online for GBP 75,600 ($95,255), the sterling record for the signed edition.

12. May 2025

    World Press Photo suspends authorship attribution of the source photograph after The Stringer.

13. Jul 3, 2026

    Most recent tracked sale: a signed impression sells in Tokyo for JPY 3,450,000 ($21,330).

The world in 2004

• 2004

  Global politics is dominated by the American occupation of Iraq; photographs of abuse at Abu Ghraib cause public outrage.

• 2004

  Facebook, originally called TheFacebook, is launched by Mark Zuckerberg.

• Mar 11, 2004

  Al-Qaeda bombings on commuter trains in Madrid kill 193 people.

• May 1, 2004

  The European Union expands by 10 new member states.

• Aug 13, 2004

  The Summer Olympics open in Athens.

• Nov 2, 2004

  George W. Bush is reelected president of the United States.

• Dec 26, 2004

  An Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami off Sumatra kills more than 227,000 people.

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, Napalm (Can't Beat That Feeling) is number 68 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 (58 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Banksy kept Kim Phuc as she appears in the 1972 photograph and removed everyone else from the frame.
• The dollar high and the sterling record for the signed edition are different sales: EUR 85,800 ($101,815) in July 2021 versus GBP 75,600 ($95,255) in April 2022.
• A signed impression sold for $5,665 in June 2013, roughly one-eighteenth of the 2021 high.
• The 2006 Serpentine version of Napalm was made for a show drawn from Damien Hirst's own collection.
• In 2025 World Press Photo suspended the authorship credit of the photograph the print is based on, a step described as a historic first.
• Some lots are flagged 'DN,' a duplicate edition number, in market records.