Urban art: laughing all the way to the Banksy?

By Jennifer Hill, Personal Finance Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Nestled on Walton Street in London's stylish Knightsbridge, the Andipa Gallery is taking delivery of life-sized prints, newsprint sculptures and mammoth murals from New York, Los Angeles and Paris.

Maria Andipa, 80, founded the gallery on this very site 40 years ago after a career as an actress that saw her play a gypsy in the James Bond film "From Russia with Love" and appear alongside Katharine Hepburn and Bob Hope.

Her son Acoris, 40, became director and owner 18 years ago, continuing the Greek family's long-running tradition in art dealing that began in Venice as far back as 1593.

Much has changed in that time, and the gallery is preparing to stage the first collective exhibition of the work of urban artists from around the globe.

"Trespass Alliance: Inside Urban Art" will feature works from a string of renowned artists including: D*Face, a London-based multimedia street artist famed for putting defaced 10 pound notes into circulation and creating a 9 ft tall ice sculpture of a spray-can in the Arctic Circle.

Also there is Swoon, a New York-based artist known for her life-sized wheatpaste prints and cut-out paper portrayals of people going about their every day lives; and WK Interact, a French artist based in New York, known for his black and white painted murals of skaters, Kung Fu masters, boxers and mountain climbers.

"Street" art, whose high priest is Bristol-based graffiti artist Banksy, is growing in popularity across the world: in a typical week, the Andipa Gallery will sell works to collectors in Mexico, Kuwait, Paris, Los Angeles and London.

A growing band of people -- particularly the wealthy and those in high-powered banking jobs looking to spend bonuses -- are turning their attention to such alternative investments as the credit crunch continues and investors take a "flight to safety".

Rising demand is stoking prices in the sector, according to the first art and antiques survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Pictures performed particularly well during the first quarter of 2008, with 44 percent more respondents reporting a rise than a fall in lots in the 5,000-pound and over range.

That, they say, is attributable to a surge in interest in urban art: works from Banksy, Damien Hirst and Peter Doig sold for more than 10,000 pounds during the first three months of the year.

It is a trend that looks set to continue, says the owner of the Andipa Gallery.

"We've never followed the fads or trends," he tells Reuters.

"It took us a long time before pushing the button and getting into the Banksy market.

"I loved his work, but I wanted to make sure that it would go beyond the point of no return, which it has done, and now we have a multi-million pound position."