ALAMEDA, CALIF. — The first California auction house to offer Banksy’s “Girl with Balloon,” Michaan’s on December 17 saw it rise to $174,000 against a $100/150,000 estimate. Appearing at auction on the heels of “The Art of Banksy” exhibition at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts, an unauthorized show of more than 80 Banksy works from private collections, “Girl With Balloon” is the image immortalized in Banksy’s sensational self-shredding work, “Love is in the Bin,” which Sotheby’s sold in October for $25.4 million, a record for the artist. The piece sold was purchased by the consignor in the early 2000s at a flash sale Banksy put on in a London warehouse. December brought three auctions to Michaan’s, with the Fine sale on December 17 followed by the monthly gallery auction on December 18, and preceded by the three-day Annex auction Monday through Wednesday, December 13-15.

A review of further highlights will appear later.