A NEW Covid-inspired Banksy mural of a woman sneezing out her dentures on the side of a semi-detached home could be worth £5 million, an art dealer said today.

The artwork, thought to be a nod to the Covid pandemic and a possible warning from Banksy to wear a mask, appeared on the side of the house in Totterdown this morning.


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Banksy confirmed the work on his Instagram account this afternoon, explaining it is named "Aachoo!!"

Sprayed on to the side of a semi-detached house on Vale Street, the work shows a woman in a headscarf, dropping her bag and walking stick as she sneezes her dentures out.

Joey Syer, Co-founder of MyArtBroker.com – which has more than 25 years of experience of art dealing and specialises in Banksy's work – believes it could be worth millions.

He told the Sun Online: "Street art pieces are not sold without authentication by Pest Control – the Banksy authentication body.

"However with the right provenance, we’d estimate this to be worth in the region of 3-5 million pounds.”

The most expensive property that has sold in Vale Street was for £396,397, according to themovemarket.com and the house's value could now soar by millions.

The property the artwork way spray-painted on was recently put up to sale.




It is understood the work outside the house was covered up before being revealed today.

The spray-painted woman gives the illusion that she is climbing up Vale Street, the second steepest street in England.

The force of the sneeze appears to have made her drop her belongings.

Houses on this street are not usually worth more than £400,000.

Charlie Low, who lives at the top of the street said her partner saw someone stood suspiciously next to the house earlier this morning.

She said: "This morning my partner was just making coffee and he saw someone stood at the bottom of the street in a high vis at around 8am.

"He just presumed it was someone like a scaffolder, waiting for a lift.

"He was there for quite a long time but he didn't really think anything of it."

Charlie added: "It will be interesting to see if the sale goes through or not, I think it probably adds quite a lot of value to the house."

One jogger Tom, 34, earlier told the BBC he'd changed his running route so he could come and admire the graffiti.

He said: "I saw people talking about it on Twitter, I think it's pretty good – it's certainly topical."

Another passerby Jason Bartlett, 47, said: "It's going to get interesting for whoever owns the house I suppose."

It's not his first Covid-inspired artwork, in the summer he painted mask-wearing rats on the Tube.

A video was shared in July to Banky's Instagram, showing the anonymous artist in a hazmat suit, face mask and goggles – which authenticated the graffiti on an underground tube of a rat also sneezing .

It was later removed by TFL cleaners who were unaware of its value.

Dealers said the piece would have been worth around £7.5million if it had not been washed off.

Since the appearance of this Bristol artwork today, crowds have been gathering outside the house to take photographs.

Fred Loosmore, 28, a furniture maker who rented a room in the house until recently, has screwed a piece of clear acrylic over the artwork to protect it.

He said: "We wanted to come up because people will deface it, and luckily we've got a workshop and a massive piece of acrylic we've got left over. We're going to screw it on now.

"When we lived here so many people would come, especially on bikes and stuff because they were trying to do the challenge up the hills. It's a great spot.

"The artwork is so nice. It's so relevant, isn't it?"

In September, Art Attack presenter Neil Buchanan dismissed rumours Banksy was his secret alias.

The infamous artist, who has never revealed his identity, began his spray-painting career on trains and walls in his home city of Bristol in the 1990s.

His artworks often have political messages behind them.




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