British street artist and activist, Banksy, has a 7,500-pound mural on display at The Winter Garden at Brookfield Place until May 21. 

An auction will be held online and in person at Brookfield Place on May 21, run by an auction house in NYC known for selling items from the estates of Elvis Presley and Princess Diana.

Beyond his soon-to-be auctioned piece, titled “Battle to Survive a Broken Heart,” Banksy is most known for his elusiveness and his murals “Girl With Balloon” and “Flower Thrower,” also known as “Love Is In The Air.”

“Battle to Survive a Broken Heart” gained popularity due to its compelling backstory.

One evening in 2013, a contractor named Vassilios Georgiadis offered guidance to an incognito Banksy. 

While smoking outside his warehouse, Georgiadis advised Banksy to move his van so it would not be clipped by passing trucks.

The following morning, an image of a red, heart-shaped balloon covered in band-aids appeared on Georgiadis’ warehouse wall in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Crowds flocked to Brooklyn to see the bandaged heart; one among them was rival artist “Omar NYC.” 

Omar defaced Banksy’s new installation by tagging his name across the balloon. According to Anastasios Georgiadis, Vassilios’ son, the crowd booed when Omar scrawled his name.

In response, Anastasios hired “bodyguards” to control the crowds and protect Banksy’s artwork.

Banksy later returned to Red Hook and embellished further on the red balloon — the only artwork Banksy is known to have revisited in his entire career.

Eventually, “Battle to Survive a Broken Heart” was removed from the warehouse wall by the Georgiadis family. Since 2014, it has been stored in a climate-controlled warehouse in Long Island City.

In 2021, Georgiadis passed away from heart disease. To honor him, his family is donating a portion of the auction’s proceeds to the American Heart Association.

“To me this powerful artwork is more than just street art—it’s a symbol of the millions of lives impacted by heart disease, our nation’s leading cause of death,” Nancy Brown, the chief executive officer of the AHA, said in a statement.

An audio guide at banksy.co.uk adds, this piece is obviously an iconic representation of the battle to survive a broken heart. 

It’s an uplifting visual poem to that most fragile of human emotions that seem to move within us as if on a soft breeze.

“Battle to Survive a Broken Heart” is available for viewing in Lower Manhattan until the auction.