Banksy's 'Game Changer' to be auctioned for UK's NHS

Christie's will auction Banksy's painting 'Game Changer' on March 23, 2021, during its 20th Century Art Evening Sale in London. The work, which appeared at University Hospital Southampton in May 2020 during the first pandemic wave, has an estimate of £2.5–3.5 million (€2.9–4 million). Proceeds will benefit the NHS. The painting depicts a child playing with a nurse superhero, replacing traditional heroes like Batman and Spider-Man. It will be on public view at Christie's Duke Street Gallery until March 15, 2021, while a reproduction remains at the hospital. Katharine Arnold, head of Post-War and Contemporary Art in Europe, described the work as a universal tribute to frontline workers. Banksy has created other pandemic-themed works, including a 2020 piece showing his home quarantine and a mural in Bristol of an elderly woman sneezing.