Elton John Announces $2.9m in Aid for Ukrainians

Banksy b. 1974, United Kingdom Follow +

The Elton John AIDS Foundation will provide close to U.S. $3 million to partner organisations in Ukraine, the singer announced on Instagram yesterday.

‘To witness the scale of suffering and see the ever-increasing toll the past two years of war is having on the people of Ukraine is simply devastating,’ he wrote.

‘14.6 million Ukrainians will need humanitarian assistance in 2024, including approximately 250,000 people living with HIV and a further 600,000 at risk of the disease. These are people—vulnerable before the start of the war—whose lives have been ripped apart and are now facing crippling barriers to life-saving testing and treatment.’

Elton John, born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, said his foundation had provided essential support to over 68,000 people in Ukraine since the start of the war.

A collection of Elton John’s artworks, outfits, and even his 1990 Bentley Continental Convertible went up for sale at Christie’s ‘Goodbye Peachtree Road’ auction, which opened on 9 February and continues online until 28 February.

The auction was prompted, in part, by John’s sale of his six-bedroom Atlanta condominium last fall. John first purchased a duplex in 1992, but subsequently expanded into five more apartments in the building. Together, they housed a significant art collection.

More than 900 items feature in the auction series. The artwork that realised the highest price was Banksy‘s Flower Thrower Triptych (2017), which fetched $1.9 million (including fees) against an estimate of $1 million to $1.5 million (not including fees).

A three-eyed face by Keith Haring brought in $756,000 against an estimate of $300,000–500,000, but some artworks underperformed. The Deborah Butterfield scrap metal horse sculpture Dazzle (1990) realised just $100,800 against an estimate of $200,000–300,000.

Elton John shared that the horse, which was installed and removed by crane, was ‘one of my more memorable buys that was a centrepiece of my apartment (and the Atlanta skyline for a brief period!)’.

Items more closely associated with the Rocket Man himself saw the hottest bidding, including the Bentley, which sold for $441,000, more than ten times its high estimate. The singer’s grand piano sold for $201,600, four times its high estimate, while 12 pairs of brightly coloured eyeglasses sold for more than eight times the high estimate. —[O]

Main image: Banksy, Flower Thrower Triptych (2017). Spray paint on canvas in artist's frame, in three parts. 106.7 x 203.2 cm. Courtesy Christie's.