The 2026 Market

Banksy print prices have been rising slowly through 2026, and at the end of September the market is about 4% higher than it was a year ago. That's a modest number, but it matters because of what came before it: for more than four years, from the peak in early 2021 to the start of this year, almost every month was lower than the one before, and 2026 is the first year in which the direction has clearly turned.

Where the index stands

The Banksy Index measures the whole print market at once, with every print counting the same whatever it costs, and it is set at 100 for January 2020. It reached 293 in January 2021, when prices had nearly tripled in a year, and then fell for a long time, through 158 in September 2022 and 113 a year later, down to 79 by September 2025. It bottomed at 76 in January 2026 and has climbed since, to 82.5 at the end of September.

So the market is up about 9% from its low this year, and still about 72% below the peak. Both of those are true at once, and which one you hear depends on who is selling to you. A collector who bought in 2021 is still well underwater on almost anything, while someone who bought in 2024 or 2025 is starting to see a small gain.

What has sold

We have 139 results for Banksy prints so far this year, adding up to about £4.35 million including buyer's premium, and the middle result is £18,428. That median is up from £16,510 across 2025, which is a slightly better sign than the index alone, because it says the ordinary unsigned prints that make up most of the market are doing more of the work.

The two biggest results of the year came on the same day. On 23 September a signed Girl with Balloon, number 17 of 150, made £249,175 at Rago in the United States, and a few hours later number 129 of 150 made £204,800 at Sotheby's in London. The signed Girl with Balloon has been the most expensive regular print in the record for years, and two strong results in one day is the clearest sign yet that the top of the market is recovering.

The result people talked about most was smaller. In March, an unsigned Applause, number 450 of 500, made £96,000 at Sotheby's against an estimate of £8,000 to £12,000, a new record for the print and far above anything it had made before. One result like that doesn't reset a print on its own, and our value for unsigned Applause sits at about £17,400 rather than anywhere near £96,000, because the model weighs one outlier against the rest of the record. It has still pulled the value up by 46% over the year, which makes it the biggest riser in the index.

The Flower Thrower Triptych, the three-panel print from the Gross Domestic Product shop in 2019, made £177,800 at Christie's in March and £153,600 in September. It has risen about 22% in a year, the same as the unsigned Girl with Balloon, which made £115,200 at Sotheby's in March and £109,650 at Phillips on 17 September.

Risers and fallers

Over the last twelve months the strongest movers, among prints with at least two results since the start of 2025, have been unsigned Applause at +46%, the signed Very Little Helps at +32%, the signed Bomb Love at +23%, and the unsigned Girl with Balloon and the Flower Thrower Triptych at +22% each.

A few prints have gone the other way. The unsigned Rude Copper is down about a quarter, the signed Grin Reaper about 15%, and two of the commoner unsigned prints, Pulp Fiction and Queen Vic, have slipped by 7% to 8%. None of that looks like a collapse, and in each case it comes from a small number of recent results, but it's a reminder that the recovery is uneven and that the best-known images are leading it.

What comes next

The autumn sales are where the year gets decided, and there is a good test coming early. A signed Kate Moss, number 11 of 20, is due at Sotheby's in New York on 8 October with an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000, and an unsigned Girl with Balloon goes to Bonhams in Paris on 28 October at €40,000 to €60,000, a cautious estimate given where that print has been selling this year. We keep every upcoming lot we know about on the coming up page, with our own value beside the house estimate, and we will update this piece when the autumn results are in.