# Martin Hodgson
# The Guardian,
# Friday March 7 2008



Ken Livingstone's campaign for re-election as mayor of London received a shot in the arm last night, when an art auction raised £230,000 in support of his candidacy in just over an hour.

The sale featured 38 works by artists including Anthony Gormley, Marc Quinn, Banksy, Mona Hatoum and Ralph Steadman, and in all it brought in nearly a quarter of the total amount each candidate is permitted to spend on campaigning.


All rights : Guardian.co.uk


Speaking after the auction at the Aquarium gallery in Islington, Livingstone said the event had yielded more than any fund-raising event so far, enabling him to match the sums already raised by his Conservative rival, Boris Johnson.

"We are allowed to spend up to £1m on campaigning. We know that Boris has got a quarter of a million or more, and now we've caught up with him. It's going to be a much fairer fight now."

Most of the money came from a single canvas by the graffiti artist Banksy, which sold to an anonymous bidder for £195,000. The painting shows two children pledging allegiance to a Tesco shopping bag, and is a preliminary sketch for a life-size graffito which appeared on Wednesday on the wall of an Islington pharmacy.

Livingstone himself bought a print of a Steadman cartoon for a £140. He said: "The art world is very in touch with what happens in London. They recognise that if Boris gets in, society would collapse back into barbarism."

A spokeswoman for Rootball, which organised the event, said: "The artists here do not consider themselves political artists, but they do want to affect the political process and support progressive policies for the capital."

NAME:

MAIL:

URL:


COLOR:
Black LimeGreen SeaGreen Teal FireBrick Tomato IndianRed BurlyWood SlateGray DarkSlateBlue LightPink DeepPink DarkOrange Gold DimGray Silver
SUBJECT:


COMMENT:

PASS:

トラックバックURL