Miles Davis' trumpet, Banksy truck go up for sale in high-profile auctions
A legendary trumpet and a painted Volvo truck are expected to fetch big bucks on both sides of the pond
They're completely different artists from completely different eras, but this week Miles Davis and Banksy have at least one thing in common: objects they're associated with are going up for auction, and they're expected to fetch big bucks.
Miles Davis' famed Moons and Stars trumpet, which was custom made for the jazz icon in the 1980s, is going up for sale in a Christie's auction in New York.
Valued at between $70,000 and $100,000, the blue trumpet was commissioned by Davis after a five-year hiatus, and was one of a set of three trumpets — one red, one blue and one black — that feature gilt moon and stars, with the name "Miles" inscribed on the bell.
The designer was Larry Ramirez — also a trumpeter — and he later recounted the story of delivering the blue and the black horns to Davis at his motel room.
"Ramirez told the story, in later life, of the nerves he'd felt at the moment Davis handed him back one of the horns and said, 'You play, don't you?'" says the Christie's auction page. "He duly played a tentative passage from Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez and remembers his relief when Davis observed, 'Man, you play pretty good.'"
New York trumpeter Keyon Harrold says the instrument is extraordinary. "Handling the blue Moon and Stars horn is, for jazz lovers, like handling a holy relic," says Harrold in a Christie's video. "The design is flawless, and the gold engraving is just beautiful. It also gives out a beautiful tone when you play it — with very little resistance. Kind of like a free blow. The Committee horns were Miles Davis's favourite, and any one that once belonged to him is a classic object."
So what became of the red and the black trumpets? According to Christie's, the red one stayed in Davis' family, and the black one is buried at Davis' side at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.
On the other side of the Atlantic, a very different artwork is going up for sale: a Volvo FL6 box truck that was painted by legendary graffiti artist Banksy in 2000 — before he became an international sensation.
Titled Turbo Zone Truck (Laugh Now But One Day We'll Be In Charge), the large van — which is expected to fetch as much as $2 million — features a man swinging a hammer into metal gears, while flying monkeys throw wrenches into the works. Another image sees soldiers retreating from cannon fire.
But unlike other Banksy pieces that mysteriously surface in unlikely places, the artwork on the Volvo van was commissioned in advance of a New Year's warehouse party that marked the turn of the millennium. In the following years, the truck toured Europe and South America with a pyrotechnics company called Turbozone Circus.
"An imposing statement piece by one of the most celebrated artists of the contemporary period, Turbo Zone Truck (Laugh Now But One Day We'll Be in Charge) is a truly unprecedented work of art from Banksy's formative years, illustrating an array of iconic motifs and apothegms that have become the artist's signature and calling-card," reads the Bonhams Auction House description.
Turbo Zone Truck (Laugh Now But One Day We'll Be in Charge) is a truly unprecedented work of art from Banksy's formative years, illustrating an array of iconic motifs and apothegms that have become the artist's signature and calling card.- Bonham's Auction House
The auction house goes on to say that the 17-ton truck is "a mobile testament" to Banksy's upending of gallery-based art conventions.
"Taking the vehicle of the laborer, the workman and the blue-collar employee as his blank canvas, the present motorcar and work of art revels in Banksy's raw and unfiltered wit, a masterclass of the artist's satirical humour and impressive dexterity with spray paint."