Make it valuable auction 

In May 26th of 2021, Muelle's work wrote a new chapter in the history of urban art by putting out on sale, through an auction, fourteen pieces from Juan Carlos' private collection painted betwen 1986 and 1994. 

The auction, apart from bringing value to Muelle's work, it also revealed to the public a side of the artist that was unknown so far in another discipline different from graffiti, and a new recognition to his figure as an urban art pioneer and icon. 

Work

The pieces, registered on the Intellectual Property Registry, came out with a starting price that was between 1.500€ and 6.000€. An airbrush print, with the classic Muelle's signature with a gradient filling on several colours above Madrid's skyline, was the most valued piece at the auction, since it was sold for 17.000€.  

Another piece that also generated great expectation, multiplying by five its starting price, was the signature of Muelle integrated in its spiral. This piece has the additional appeal of having been used by Juan Carlos as a sketch to make his piece at the Segovia's Bridge, in Madrid.

Among the collection, there were two other abstract art pieces that showed a new side of the artist unknown until then, where he didn't recreated his traditional signature.

Public and private use  

These pieces not only cought the private collector's eye but also the State's as well, who bought one of the abstract pieces to be part, together with the pieces exhibited at ARCO in 1990, of the collection of the Museum of Contemporaty Art in Madrid. Both pieces will be exhibited until November 2022, at the Conde Duque Cultural Space as part of the exhibition “Nuevos Senderos del MAC”.

The María Cristina Masaveu's Foundation, not-for-profit private institution that's focused on boosting culture, bought another three auctioned pieces. Now these three pieces are being exhibited at the StreetArt space that the foundation has prepared in its headquarters in Madrid, sharing space with other work from renowed Urban Art artists such as Vhils, Keith Haring and Banksy.