You Are Not Banksy
Geez! Unless you live under a rock, you’ve heard that anti-consumerist, anonymous street artist, Banksy, recently pulled-off his greatest publicity stunt yet… Shredding one of his most iconic works, “Girl With A Balloon” as it hung on Sotheby’s wall just moments after it hammered down at $1.4 million. With reports now claiming the value of the artwork has doubled, I think so has the ignorance of the consumer. If YOU, the owner of a Banksy decides to shred YOUR (or any other) Banksy, YOU WILL NOT DOUBLE THE VALUE. My eyes are rolling as I read @myartbroker’s tweet “#Banksy print owners contact us today asking if they shred their artwork will it be worth more. Please, Please DON’T. The events of the last 24hrs are a very unique piece of art history. #GirlWithBalloon.” REALLY!? Those who have the tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on an original Banksy should know the difference between shredding a work themselves vs a publicity stunt by the artist. To put it simply, what Banksy did was take an original work of art that he created, altered it, and turned it into a different original work of art. To those who were senseless enough to take the shredding upon themselves… yes you, with the Stanley knife who thinks your value has doubled… Your Banksy is probably worth nothing more than pennies now. Banksy is a publicity artist just as much as an artistic artist. So, with that, Banksy — bravo on getting your name on pretty much every news platform this past week. And anyone with an original Banksy…put the knife down and turn the shredder off. Till the next stunt.