---
title: "Retna: results at LLB Auction"
source: LLB Auction
canonical: https://www.llb-auction.com/artists/retna
currency: EUR
price_basis: hammer, excluding buyer's premium and VAT
scope: results at this auction house only
---

# Retna

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Born | 1979 |
| Nationality | American |
| Movements | Graffiti, Street art, Calligraffiti |
| Lots offered at LLB Auction | 4 |
| Lots sold | 4 |
| Range of prices realised | €1,600 to €14,525 |
| Median price realised | €12,000 |

## Lots

| Work | Medium | Sale | Date | Estimate | Hammer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Untitled | Acrylic on found door | Contemporary Art Summer 2026 | 7 July 2026 | €6,000 to €12,000 | €12,000 |
| LOT 30. Untitled (White on Black) | Etching | Contemporary Art - December 2025 | 23 December 2025 | €1,500 to €3,000 | €1,600 |
| LOT 29. Untitled | Acrylic | Contemporary Art - December 2025 | 23 December 2025 | €5,000 to €10,000 | €5,200 |
| LOT 47. Even the Heart Skips a Beat | Screenprint | Contemporary Art: Autumn Collection 2025 | 26 October 2025 | €10,000 to €15,000 | €14,525 |

## About Retna

### Life and work

Marquis Duriel Lewis, who signs his work RETNA, was born in Los Angeles in 1979 and still works there. He came out of the city's graffiti crews in the years when writing on walls was mostly a nocturnal trade, and he built from that beginning a script of his own. It borrows the proportions of Egyptian hieroglyphs, the flow of Arabic and Hebrew letterforms, the weight of Gothic blackletter and the geometry of Chicano lettering from Los Angeles. The result reads as language without being readable, and it is the single thing collectors buy him for. He belongs to the crews known as Art Work Rebels, Mad Society Kings and The Seventh Letter. His public commissions include the West Hollywood Park murals of 2011, painted alongside Shepard Fairey and Kenny Scharf, and he filled the galleries of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles with an environment of his script in 2013. In 2016 his designs carried a staging of Verdi at the San Francisco Opera.

### Disciplines and how they differ

The market for this artist is overwhelmingly a market for painting on canvas. Acrylic on canvas is the standard, sometimes with enamel and with a glitter medium the house catalogues call crystallina. Scale drives everything. Canvases approaching two and a half metres on a side are placed in live evening and day sales, while small formats around ninety centimetres go into timed online sales. Works on paper and screenprints exist and trade well below the canvases. Murals, which are what most people know him for, are attached to buildings owned by other parties and do not come to market. LLB Auction has sold four lots by him, all of which found buyers.

### What a specialist examines

The signature is normally on the reverse rather than on the face. Expect an inscription there in the artist's own hand, often the title, the year and a place name, sometimes a whole sentence. The front may carry nothing but the script itself. A specialist reads the density and the rhythm of the lettering, since the vocabulary tightened as the studio practice matured, and compares the ground preparation and the edges of the stretcher with documented examples. Condition points follow the medium. Spray and enamel passages can lift or crack, glitter grounds shed, and large unglazed canvases pick up surface dirt and stretcher marks. Provenance matters more than usual, because many canvases went straight from the studio to a private collection without passing through a gallery. No body that reviews works for sellers is listed under Career, so the paperwork a seller holds carries the weight.

### Market position

The public record sits mainly with Phillips, which has offered his work in New York, London and Hong Kong. In Hong Kong in 2023 a large canvas in enamel, acrylic and crystallina made HKD 762,000. In New York in 2024 an untitled canvas roughly two and a half metres wide made USD 88,900, and in 2023 a square canvas titled This is Show Business made USD 69,850. In London in 2024 the canvas Los Banditos made GBP 40,640. Earlier, in 2022, Electrify the City made USD 75,600 in New York. At the small end an untitled canvas of about ninety centimetres made USD 21,930 in a timed online sale that closed in 2026. Each of those figures includes the buyer's premium as the house prints it.

### What a seller should have ready

Photographs of the front, of the whole reverse and of the inscription in close detail, since the reverse is where the artist writes. The exact dimensions in centimetres and the medium as far as it can be told. The purchase invoice or any document showing where the work came from, especially if it was bought from the studio directly. Any gallery correspondence, shipping paperwork or exhibition label still attached to the stretcher. A recent condition report if the surface carries glitter or spray passages. Photographs taken in raking light will show stretcher marks and lifting better than flat light. If the work is a print, the edition number and the publisher's blindstamp.

## Market at LLB Auction

| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Sell-through | 100% |
| Record hammer | €14,525 (LOT 47. Even the Heart Skips a Beat) |
| Hammer vs low estimate | 1.39x |
| Lots above high estimate | 0 |

### Prices by medium

| Medium | Offered | Sold | Lowest hammer | Median hammer | Highest hammer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acrylic | 1 | 1 | €5,200 | €5,200 | €5,200 |
| Acrylic on found door | 1 | 1 | €12,000 | €12,000 | €12,000 |
| Etching | 1 | 1 | €1,600 | €1,600 | €1,600 |
| Screenprint | 1 | 1 | €14,525 | €14,525 | €14,525 |

### Year by year

| Year | Offered | Sold | Total hammer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 3 | 3 | €21,325 |
| 2026 | 1 | 1 | €12,000 |

## Public auction records

Results published by other auction houses, cited from the linked sources. Not results of LLB Auction.

| House | Date | Work | Price (basis) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phillips | 10 March 2026 | Untitled (2025) | US$21,930 (premium) | https://www.phillips.com/detail/retna/NY010226/99 |
| Phillips | 12 December 2024 | Sensations of a Black Line (2013) | US$48,260 (premium) | https://www.phillips.com/detail/retna/209110 |
| Phillips | 12 December 2024 | Sacred Scars (2014) | US$12,065 (premium) | https://www.phillips.com/detail/retna/209111 |
| Phillips | 11 October 2024 | Los Banditos (2011) | £40,640 (premium) | https://www.phillips.com/detail/retna/UK010624/252 |
| Phillips | 25 May 2023 | He's A Criminal No Different From Me. One Could Argue I Could Be Painted With The Same Brush (2013) | HK$762,000 (premium) | https://www.phillips.com/detail/retna/HK010323/331 |
| Bonhams | 19 April 2023 | Black on Blast (2022) | £10,200 (premium) | https://www.bonhams.com/auction/28302/lot/130/retna-american-born-1979-black-on-blast-lithograph-in-black-with-hand-applied-black-glitter-2022-on-bfk-rives-paper-signed-and-numbered-7399-in-pencil-verso-published-by-print-them-all-paris-with-their-blindstamp-the-full-sheet-sheet-1042-x-752mm-41-x-29-58in/ |
| Bonhams | 4 June 2020 | Untitled | US$62,575 (premium) | https://www.bonhams.com/auction/26460/lot/248/retna-born-1979-untitledcirca-2007acrylic-on-canvas-signed-along-lower-right-edge96-x-64in-2438-x-1626cm/ |
| Phillips | 25 September 2024 | Untitled (circa 2015) | US$88,900 (premium) | https://www.phillips.com/detail/retna/NY010624/162 |
| Phillips | 15 November 2023 | This is Show Business (2013) | US$69,850 (premium) | https://www.phillips.com/detail/retna/NY010923/414 |
| Phillips | 16 November 2022 | Electrify the City (2012) | US$75,600 (premium) | https://www.phillips.com/detail/retna/NY010922/411 |

## Career

### Cautions

- Signed and numbered prints trade far below unique canvases. The lithograph Black on Blast, numbered 73 of 99 and published in Paris, made GBP 10,200 at Bonhams in 2023, a fraction of what canvases of comparable date reach. (https://www.bonhams.com/auction/28302/lot/130/retna-american-born-1979-black-on-blast-lithograph-in-black-with-hand-applied-black-glitter-2022-on-bfk-rives-paper-signed-and-numbered-7399-in-pencil-verso-published-by-print-them-all-paris-with-their-blindstamp-the-full-sheet-sheet-1042-x-752mm-41-x-29-58in/)
- Works on paper are priced well under canvases. The watercolour Sacred Scars made USD 12,065 at Phillips in New York in 2024, while canvases in the same series of sales reached several times that. (https://www.phillips.com/detail/retna/209111)
- Much of the artist's public reputation rests on murals painted onto walls in Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Mexico City. Those works stay where they were made and cannot be consigned, so a photograph of a wall is not evidence of a saleable object. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retna)
- The artist works under a pseudonym and signs in several ways, on the overlap, on the reverse with a date, or along a lower edge, often with a long inscription. Check a consignment against the way the house that last sold it recorded the signature. (https://www.phillips.com/detail/retna/UK010624/252)
- Canvases by this artist are commonly signed and inscribed on the reverse rather than on the face. The verso usually carries the signature, the year and often a place name, so photograph it in full before consigning. (https://www.phillips.com/detail/retna/NY010226/99)
- The Mudra Lewis Foundation named on the artist's own site is a philanthropic family foundation and describes no role in reviewing works offered for sale, so the documentation a seller holds is the documentation that exists. (https://retna.com/foundation)
- Much of the output this artist is best known for is mural painting on walls owned by other parties, which never enters the trade. What reaches the saleroom is studio work on canvas and on paper. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retna)
- Results at the same house span a wide band according to scale and sale format, with monumental canvases placed in live evening and day sales and small canvases in timed online sales. (https://www.phillips.com/artist/10835/retna)

### Exhibitions

| Exhibition | Venue | Year |
|---|---|---|
| RETNA: Para mi gente | Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles | 2013 |
| Art in the Streets | Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles | 2011 |
| Street Cred: Graffiti Art from Concrete to Canvas | Pasadena Museum of California Art | 2011 |
| The Hallelujah World Tour | Los Angeles and Miami | 2011 |
| The Future of the Past | Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco | 2016 |
| Margraves | Maddox Gallery, London | 2017 |
| La Cuenta Larga | Mexico City | 2018 |
| West Hollywood Park Murals, with Shepard Fairey and Kenny Scharf | City of West Hollywood | 2011 |
| RETNA: Para mi gente | MOCA Grand Avenue, Los Angeles | 2013 |
| Aida, design concepts for the San Francisco Opera production | War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco | 2016 |
| The Future of the Past, site specific installation | Legion of Honor, San Francisco | 2016 |
| Solo exhibition | Maddox Gallery, London | 2017 |
| Coney Art Walls | Coney Island, Brooklyn | 2018 |

## Comparables

Comparable price band (middle half of hammer prices here): €5,200 to €14,525

Related artists: Daniel Arsham, Jeff Koons, Thierry noir, Invader, Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Keith Haring


## Sources

- LLB Auction catalogue (Proprietary)
- Wikipedia contributors, Retna, CC BY-SA 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retna
- Wikidata contributors (CC0): https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16218751
- Phillips Auctioneers (all rights reserved, cited under quotation): https://www.phillips.com/artist/10835/retna
- Bonhams (all rights reserved, cited under quotation): https://www.bonhams.com/
- The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (all rights reserved, cited under quotation): https://www.moca.org/exhibition/retna-para-mi-gente
- Maddox Gallery (all rights reserved, cited under quotation): https://maddoxgallery.com/artists/34-retna/overview/
- San Francisco Opera (all rights reserved, cited under quotation): https://www.sfopera.com/blog/backstage-with-matthew/2016/backstage-with-matthew---august-22/
- City of West Hollywood (all rights reserved, cited under quotation): https://www.weho.org/Home/Components/News/News/7823/23
- RETNA (all rights reserved, cited under quotation): https://retna.com/foundation

## Valuations
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