Stolen Invader artworks for sale at Julien's Auction
- Delphine & Romain Class
- Sep 18, 2025
- 7 min read
Updated: Jan 9
Updated on 6 January 2026
The California-based auction house Julien's Auctions has announced, with heavy promotion on social media, a sale of works by the street artist Invader at the end of September. The sale mainly consists of mosaics that were torn down from the streets, either in the French Basque Country or in Paris.
Although the Basque Country invasion has not yet celebrated its first anniversary, around ten of the sixty mosaics installed by the artist in the region—mainly in Biarritz and Bayonne—have already been stolen. Six of them are now being auctioned in California. We had already written an article about the disappearance of one of them: Disappearance of the Invader mosaic from the Barre lighthouse in Anglet.
As the artist himself pointed out on his Instagram account at the beginning of 2024, his mosaics are meant first and foremost for everyone, freely accessible. They are meant to be discovered in the street, by passersby. Tearing them down and reselling them therefore constitutes, first of all, a misappropriation of the work of street artist Invader. Moreover, they are not accompanied by any official documents proving their authenticity. As such, they have no resale value, and in many cases they are fakes. And even if they are genuine, most of the time they are damaged during the “removal” process.
Invader has fallen victim to his own success, and he is among the most counterfeited and copied contemporary artists. Whether through online sellers or auction houses, fake works are extremely common.
It should be noted that the artist has also created works that were never installed in the streets and are intended for private collectors. These include the Aliases—twin duplicates of mosaics placed in public spaces—along with invasion kits and limited edition prints of the covers of his Invasion books.
The Aliases
Street artist Invader has developed a commercial version of his street works: the Aliases. For each mosaic installed in the streets, he may decide to produce a duplicate, a faithful replica, which is then accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the artist’s studio. Their price varies depending on size and original location, generally ranging between fifty thousand and two hundred thousand euros.
The Invasion Kits
Starting in 2000, Invader began selling ready-to-use Invasion Kits on his website. These are pre-assembled mosaics made up of around a hundred tiles, sealed in protective anti-static bags, ready to be pasted wherever one chooses. The original idea was to allow anyone to take part in the invasion—so that everyone could have an Invader at home, in their street, on their building, etc. The kits even bear the phrase “Bonne invasion” (“Happy invasion”).
However, since these kits were produced in limited quantities, each identifiable by a unique number and some even signed by the artist, they quickly became collectors’ items whose value has only increased, particularly over the past four or five years. Very few were actually placed in the streets; instead, they now mostly belong to private collections. To acquire an authenticated kit with proper provenance—and therefore without risk—you can expect to pay between twenty and thirty thousand euros.
To date, there are 18 Invader Invasion Kits: Invasion Kit #1 Albinos, Invasion Kit #2 Blue Octopus, Invasion Kit #3 Hollywoodee, Invasion Kit #4 Rubik Space, Invasion Kit #5 Atari, Invasion Kit #6 Runner, Invasion Kit #7 Union Space, Invasion Kit #8 Third Eye, Invasion Kit #9 Hypnotic Vienna, Invasion Kit #10 Paris, Invasion Kit #11 Blue, Invasion Kit #12 Home, Invasion Kit #13 Made In Japan, Invasion Kit #14 3D Vision, Invasion Kit #15 Glow In The Dark, Invasion Kit #16 Flash, Invasion Kit #17 MSF, Invasion Kit #18 Los Angeles.
The Deluxe Editions of the Invasion Books
For nine of his major invasions, the artist has published books documenting the mosaics installed. The deluxe editions—limited to the first 50 copies—feature a unique mosaic embedded in the cover.
The Screenprints
In addition to the Invasion Kits, street artist Invader has also produced around fifty screenprints. The most sought-after by collectors are those featuring embossing, which creates a relief highlighting the pixels of the motifs. These are often the oldest prints.
Let’s return to the Basque Country invasion, one of the most significant of recent years. Over the course of about ten days, at the end of November 2024, the French artist ultimately installed 60 ceramic works in the Basque Country, mostly in Biarritz and Bayonne. The Bayonne municipality was thrilled by this invasion, while Biarritz’s local authorities had some reservations…
How many works would he install in the region? This was the question all fans and enthusiasts of Space Invader asked themselves from the very beginning of the invasion. In the end, there were sixty. It had been a long time since the artist had carried out such a large-scale invasion—certainly since the one in Marseille. We were therefore very lucky! Moreover, most of the mosaics are large, over 50x50 cm, with around fifteen exceeding one square meter. It is notable to see how the artist increasingly asserts himself with large-scale works, compared to his early pieces which were generally 30x30 cm.
Bayonne, Biarritz, and Anglet thus became Invader’s new playground, the internationally recognized Street Art star known worldwide. He enjoyed spreading 60 mosaics across neighborhoods, avenues, and well-known squares such as Villa Belza and the Côte des Basques district in Biarritz, or the cathedral area in Bayonne. All the flashers—enthusiasts who photograph the mosaics using the FlashInvaders app—wondered if there would be a BAB_64 mosaic. Evidently, there was not!
The works installed in the Basque Country reflect the identity and culture of each location. For example, in Bayonne’s Place Pasteur, an alien is depicted with the flag of the rugby club Aviron Bayonnais. In Biarritz, at Plaza Bérri, the alien holds an ikurriña, the Basque flag. Contrary to popular belief, Street Art can sometimes be more deliberate than spontaneous. Preparations—including scouting locations and creating specific graphic designs for each site—are done in advance. Each invasion also requires specific logistics. For instance, for the Basque Country invasion, if we count 300 to 400 ceramic tiles per mosaic (at minimum), that amounts to between 20,000 and 25,000 tiles to transport and install in total! Usually, Invader prepares his works in advance on plastic sheets and sticks them onto the wall in one go. But of course, this method only works for smaller pieces. For the larger works, the process is much more complex…
For his B.A.B invasion (Bayonne, Anglet, Biarritz), Invader carefully scouted locations beforehand to create the works according to the places where they would be displayed. They are also catalogued with unique codes—on the Basque coast, this is BAB followed by a number.
As stated at the beginning of the article, as of September 2025, the artist initiated legal proceedings, directly in the United States, against Julien’s Auctions, alleging that the auction offered fifteen original works — mosaics — without his consent. Most of these works had been forcibly removed from their original public locations, particularly in the city of Biarritz. The artist argues that this constitutes theft of materials and, more importantly, a violation of his copyright, notably the protections provided under the U.S. Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). As early as 25 September 2025, the court granted interim relief to the claimant, as all the disputed works were withdrawn from the catalogue on the very day of the sale.
This case is noteworthy for several reasons. It highlights significant issues relating to the moral and intellectual property rights of urban artists, even when their works are installed in public spaces. One inevitably thinks of the works of Banksy, which are regularly removed — most notably the piece created on one of the Bataclan doors, which was stolen the very next day. The legitimacy of selling street art works removed from their original context without the artist’s consent is therefore squarely called into question. While the case is still ongoing and may extend over several years, this initial victory — the withdrawal of the lots — is already considered a significant step forward for the legal protection of street artists.
It thus appears that a street artist may have a sale annulled where a work has been unlawfully removed from a public space, even several years after the sale has taken place. For auction houses, this creates a heightened obligation of authentication and due diligence, which can only help to protect and regulate the market. In the case of Invader, counterfeit works are numerous, including in major auction sales. In the long term, auction houses may be required to verify the precise provenance of the works they sell and, above all, to demonstrate that the removal of a work from a public location was lawful and authorised. For collectors, acquiring such a work becomes a genuine risk: seizure of the artwork, inability to resell it, or direct involvement in legal proceedings.
Street art therefore no longer exists in a legal vacuum, and these works are increasingly on the path towards legal protection.
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