{"id":382409,"date":"2026-04-16T11:49:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/382409\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T11:49:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:49:17","slug":"record-breaking-works-of-art-that-have-shaped-our-world-from-da-vinci-to-banksy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/382409\/","title":{"rendered":"Record-breaking works of art that have shaped our world: from da Vinci to Banksy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Making art is its own reward. Creating an original artwork from nothing can be deeply satisfying, immense fun and works wonders for our mental well-being; it\u2019s little wonder that art therapy can prove so effective. There are myriad ends to which artists have applied their craft, of course. Since the 1990s, the mysterious British<\/a> artist known as Banksy has made his name with witty, thought-provoking street art that often takes governments, or the wealthy elite, to task. And this enigmatic figure always has a trick or two up his sleeve. In 2018, a framed version of his work Girl with Balloon (2006) sold for \u00a31.042 m ($1.353 m). As soon as the auctioneer\u2019s hammer fell, however, an artistic \u201cintervention\u201d kicked in. To the astonishment of onlookers, Girl with Balloon began to self-destruct, via a device concealed inside its ornate frame, until about half of it had been shredded and left dangling. Thereafter, the painting became Love is in the Bin (2018), a cheeky title bestowed by Banksy\u2019s representatives. On 14 October 2021, Love is in the Bin\u202fsold for \u00a318,582,000 ($25,327,400) at Sotheby’s in London, UK, becoming the most expensive work by Banksy.<\/p>\n

There are all sorts of ways to make art, of course, and not all of them involve using your hands\u2026 The largest painting by mouth (individual) measured 93.97 m\u00b2 (1011.48 sq ft) \u2013 or around 30 times larger than a king-sized bed \u2013 and was created by Indian<\/a> artist Shrishail Gasti, in Karnataka, India, as confirmed on 5 December 2017.<\/p>\n

\"the<\/p>\n

The largest painting by mouth<\/p>\n

Shrishail\u2019s compatriot Vaibhav Kumar Sharma produced the largest painting by foot (individual) \u2013 a 189.89-m\u00b2 (2,043.95-sq-ft) depiction of a yoga meditation \u2013 which was measured in Ramgarh, Jharkhand, India, on 30 November 2023. Meanwhile, for devotees of digital dexterity, the largest fingerprint painting was a colossal 1,195.14 m\u00b2 (12,864.37 sq ft) \u2013 around two-and-a-half times the size of a basketball court \u2013 and was painstakingly created by Kuang Xianpeng (China<\/a>), as verified in Zhuzhou, Hunan, China, on 26 May 2018. Incorporating more than 4.8 million individual fingerprints, and two years in the making, Descendants of the Dragon portrays six Chinese dragons and six ancient Chinese arts: music, mathematics, calligraphy, archery, charioteering and rites.<\/p>\n

\"the<\/p>\n

The largest fingerprint painting<\/p>\n

And while we\u2019re at it, who says there\u2019s only one way to draw? The largest freehand drawing is an expansive 4.86 km (3.02 mi) in diameter and comprises 1,000 individual circles. Its creator, Jim Denevan (USA), made the outsized artwork in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA, in May 2009 in seven days, by etching the sand with a rake and using chains dragged behind a vehicle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Making art is its own reward. Creating an original artwork from nothing can be deeply satisfying, immense fun…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[198737,442,498,499,500,13627,501,156,54286,7911,111,139,69,198736],"class_list":{"0":"post-382409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art-records","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-artsdesign","13":"tag-banksy","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-guinness-world-records","17":"tag-leonardo-da-vinci","18":"tag-new-zealand","19":"tag-newzealand","20":"tag-nz","21":"tag-world-art-day"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}