Take That Singer Is Unlikely Patron To New Banksy

Robbie Williams splashes out £30,000 to buy artwork by Bambi, acclaimed as the next Banksy

Pop sensation Robbie Williams appears to quite the little art collector. His latest purchase was a piece of graffiti, dishing out a monumental £30,000 to buy the work for his, as yet, unborn daughter, due in September, with wife Ayda Field, 32.

The artwork is by super-secretive street artist Bambi, and features a black stencil of a baby on canvas (chosen no doubt with the ultimate infantine owner in mind). Williams obviously sees art as the present to give, with it emerging later this month that he was paying a sculptor to make a life-size statue of his wife.

His most recent purchase is inspired by Take That band mate Mark Owen, who bought an artwork by Bambi for £20,000 in January to celebrate his 40th birthday. A source says that ‘Robbie loved Mark’s painting and knew he had to get in on the act’; he bought his very own Bambi artwork after falling ‘in love’ with the piece.

The source added: ‘Robbie is really getting into his art. When he saw the baby painting he fell in love with it and wanted it for his girl’; ‘He can’t wait to hang it in his LA mansion. He has nothing on his mind but baby thoughts just now.’

Bambi is being hailed as the female Banksy, believed by some bloggers to have the potential to ‘become Britain’s most famous Street Artist’. And one piece on the Royals, with the slogan ‘A bit like Marmite’ – i.e. you either love them or hate them – became a bit of a media craze. Since then, Bambi has become best known for her full-length painting of the late Amy Winehouse.

Williams may seem like an unlikely collector, but the pop singer recently revealed that he himself was dabbling in the visual arts, turning his garage into a painting studio.

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