Mark Hoppus: Banksy painting from Blink-182 star auction

Blink-182 bass player and singer Mark Hoppus (52) separated from a Banksy painting that achieved one million sum. At the auction house Sotheby’s in London, the artwork was auctioned for around £ 5.17 million for around £ 4.3 million.

The painting by street artist Banksy called “Crude Oil (Vettriano)” is modeled on a painting by the painter Jack Vettriano (1951-2025). The artist, whose death became known a few days ago, provided the inspiration for Banksy with “The Singing Butler”. This added the motif of a dancing couple with butler and housemaid on the beach around two men in yellow protective suits. With breathing masks, the two men seem to move a ton with toxic content. The housemaid, however, cannot be seen in his painting.

Hoppus and his wife would have fallen in love with the painting, as he described. “Uncernible Banksy, but different,” he described the painting. “The piece was outside our price range, but we bought it because we liked it. Since then, our family has accompanied it in the past twelve years,” said Hoppus. She accompanied her both during her time in London and Los Angeles.

The musician does not want to keep the millions of proceeds to himself. Instead, he wants to buy art from aspiring artists to support their support. Another part of the sum benefits charity. This includes the “Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and its Child Life Program” as well as “hematology and oncology research at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center”.

The latter is particularly important to him because of his own medical history. Hoppus made his cancer public in 2021. After chemotherapy, he said in September 2021 that he was free of cancer. In view of the devastating fires in California, he wanted to donate another part of the auction proceeds to the California Fire Foundation.