A ‘Melody A.M.’ sprayed by Banksy sells for £3,720
In 2002 the Norwegian duo sent Banksy a hundred blank sleeves; they came back with the name stencilled in green, on a bespoke template. One of those hundred copies has just gone under the hammer: a local street-art collector took it for £3,720.
A rare version of ‘Melody A.M.’, the album Röyksopp released in 2001, has sold at auction for £3,720. What makes it rare is not in the grooves: it is on the sleeve.
The edition dates back to 2002, when the Norwegian duo sent Banksy a hundred blank sleeves to customise. The Bristol artist sent them back with the group’s name stencilled in green, using a template made specially for the job.
One of those hundred copies came up for sale recently. The buyer, a local street-art collector, found out too late and missed the lot; he called straight afterwards with an offer of £3,000 and ended up securing the record for £3,720.
The figure says more than the price of a piece of vinyl. The electronic music of those years was bought in neighbourhood shops and heard in bedrooms, and today its material culture — sleeves, stencils, runs of a hundred — goes under the hammer much like the street art that grew up beside it.
