back to article Banksy artwork tops £200k on eBay

A work by guerrilla artist Banksy, which appeared in September last year outside a post-production company in Portobello Road, west London, has topped £200k on eBay: Banksy's Portobello Road artwork The owner of the wall in question is Luti Fagbenle, and he's quite sensibly protected the piece with "per-specs [sic] glass". …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Banksy is brilliant

    I wonder if he is entitled to any money from this sale?

    It is his work, after all, though he drew it on somebody else's property - probably without permission...

  2. John Stag

    Banks won't get a penny

    I bet he's pissed off...

  3. Mr Chris

    No, Banksy is not brilliant

    He's the artistic equivalent of the jokes in crackers.

    And a criminal, too.

  4. The Mighty Spang

    summed up nicely by banksy himself

    "I can’t believe you morons actually buy this shit"

  5. Neill
    Stop

    priceless

    two tins of paint: £10

    a paintbrush: £5

    One Banksy book to copy from: £30

    Making £200,000 from some mug on ebay: Priceless!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Banksy is a vandal

    "he drew it on somebody else's property - probably without permission"

    If he had permission, fine. If not, he's a vandal.

  7. Joe Harrison

    He's a real artist

    You got to admit that hooded manacled orange-overalled figure he snuck into the scenery of that Disney ride was top class.

  8. Stratman
    Thumb Down

    Pour encourager les autres

    He's just another graffiti vandal.

    A few hundred hours community service with some paint stripper and a scrubbing brush should point him in the right direction.

  9. Matthew Saroff

    Paint Stripper????

    I have this image of some bird done up in a Goldfinger getup.

  10. Tony Barnes

    At least it's interesting

    The amount of graffiti that you see around that's total rubbish does my head in. I can personally hold this sort of work in far higher regard, as it's not just your average shit, but instead can be very interesting.

    Interesting question on royalties though, and also proof of who did it. Goo luck taking down the wall in 1 piece though...

  11. disreputable

    A twat of the first order

    Mr Chris is spot on - the artistic equivalent of jokes in crackers indeed, with all the profundity and impact of a fortune cookie. Let's hope someone gives him a good slap one of these days for drawing his cretinous nonsense on their wall.

  12. Graham Bartlett

    Banksy is brilliant?

    I remember last year, the papers had a section on a Banksy "exhibition". He thought it was *so* original to have pigs in police uniforms! Geddit? Geddit? Laugh - I nearly started... Not to mention the "controversial" painted elephant - painted in exactly the same way as was traditionally done in India. How daring.

    He's got enough artistic ability that he could maybe make a living drawing greetings cards. Apart from that, the guy is a living monument to the power of advertising, and that's about it.

  13. Patrick Archibald
    Happy

    @AC - 'Banksy is a Vandal'

    If Banksy wants to come and 'vandalise' my garage door (and make it worth nearly as much as my flat, I won't be complaining.

  14. Jasmine Strong

    it's really easy...

    ...to produce stuff like this if you have a laser cutter to make your stencils.

    I mean I could probably have done that in under an hour if it wasn't for the fact that I have much, much better things to do with my life.

  15. adnim
    Paris Hilton

    oh hum

    I suggest some of you visit his website and check out his work before denigrating the man.

    A vandal he maybe, a Rembrandt he isn't. However, he is an astute political satirist. It is obvious his work goes completely over the heads of some of those that comment here. It's my guess they wouldn't have to look far to understand what a real twat is.

    I chose Paris as an Icon, 'cos she ain't the only one who doesn't have a clue.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Negative Feedback

    Heh, The 'winner' has two negative feedback entries from the last couple of days...

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Hang On

    On the occasional visits I make into London on the train (on the Waterloo line no less) I'm invariably amazed at some of the quality that adorns the walls alongside the track. Not all attempts however, but some show top class graphical capability which should be rewarded.

    With Banksy, love him or loathe him, he has an undeniable talent. And not only for painting sarcastic renditions of popular culture - just think of the number of people he keeps employed (a) cleaning up after him and (b) manufacturing the materials he needs. This is someone who clearly follows the Lay Bore method of keeping people off the dole queue.

  18. disreputable

    High comedy

    Banksy an astute political satirist? How utterly hilarious. See Graham Bartlett's comment above about pigs in police uniforms for just one example of the incisiveness of his so-called satire. It's all so tiresomely predictable - like listening to roomfuls of first-year students talking about Marx or Che Guevara, man. Still, it gives me pleasure to watch drooling sycophants like adnim being conned like this, so I suppose it's not all bad...

  19. Joe Flynn
    Thumb Up

    @Hang on

    I agree with AC. Don't put him down just because you think he's below you, a common criminal, or not a 'fine' artist.

    Rebellion yeilds good things, try and name any art, music, philosophy, or politic that you aprecciate and then try and tell me it didn't come from doing something that few people accepted.

  20. Andy
    Paris Hilton

    Entertaining

    I call it, at least it's more eye pleasing than the burger flipping paint dribbling scum which usually attempt to make a point .. if only it could be read and understood perhaps. I have seen a couple of pieces which aren't easily found *hint..be on a boat*

    If all graffiti was as objective, opinionated and satirical as his ... ah well it ain't gonna happen unfortunately, you'll all have to get used to the bland 'sigs' and uninformed crap.

    My favourite local effort is "Socity sucks" .. yea well done muppet.

    Paris because I wnt to see Banksy do a Paris motif!

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Seems a gobshite bid on it.

    The winning bidder seems to be a space waster and doesnt pay see his feed back for more info. Also why is a guy who is trying to buy 10 year old crappy toyota parts buying modern guerilla artwork for 200k+

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Get with it grandad ...

    Banksy bashing is so old and weak. "It's not proper Art, you know!"

    Since the rest of our public spaces are plastered roof-to-road with the idiocy of advertising or the mundane street signs usually prohibiting some form of enjoyment (walking on the grass, smoking, playing ball games, standing on the left etc.) or stating the locally obvious (Town Centre ahead, Cricklewood right etc.) I think Banksy's outdoor messages would have to descend much further into the depths of banality and incompetence than anyone has yet to accuse him before they could be anything but still a huge improvement on our largely miserable urban environment. Painting 'pigs' might not be the high falutin' proper-art-what-proper-artists-make sort of cerebral concept but if you see a policeman walking past one it's basically funny and makes a connection to 90% of the ordinary people not just middle-class wankers. And is still a thousand times more sophisticated than "Drink Beer" or "Buy Paint" or "Eat chocolate, go on" and so-called aspirational advertising - that stuff is poison, pure evil poison.

    You could call his spiraling collectability purely a bunch of rich people who don't know their arse from their elbow - a common condition - or you could just say "fair play". There's no real way for people to enjoy his outdoor work at home so he's done stuff you can hang on the wall. Now someone's sold one of his probable walls and again I say "fair play" that's about as close as you can get to bringing the outdoor work in, it's kind of bonkers but certainly harmless.

    I'm just tired of reading mis-educated snobs deriding work I like without thinking about it. They're all just prejudiced because he's dating PH and his dad is Steve Jobs.

  23. Aubry Thonon

    Yo, banksy...

    ...Andy Warhol would like his Schtick back.

    (and no, I didn't like AW's "art" either)

  24. John Williams
    Thumb Up

    White Line

    My favourite piece is the thin white line running all the way through London. Follow it to it's source and there's a copper painted on the wall, rolled up £20 note in hand snorting it. Genius.

  25. Jim Lewis
    Thumb Up

    Provocative...

    if art has a point, (beyond merely decorative), then surely it is to provoke debate and thought.

    Banksy's art does this in spades, as this thread demonstrates.

    I'm not that happy that other less able 'artists' use his habit of using graffitti to justify their own daubs, but it's a small price to pay.

    It has certainly helped to make Bristol a more credible centre of artistic creativity and as noted by a previous poster, seeks to balance the ton of corporate shit adorning OUR environement without our say so.

  26. Rich Gibbons
    Paris Hilton

    Banksy & Paris

    The "Is Banksy a Twat" arguement will rage on for a lot longer than anyone should let it, so I'm not going to get into that!

    I just want to mention the reason I've gone for the Paris icon:

    Banksy, along with DJ Dangermouse, subverted a number of Paris's albums, both artistically and musically. Pictures of Paris with her dog's head, and remixed tracks such as "Why Am I Famous?! were a great comment on her and her ilk. The fact that they then got these back into HMV stores to be sold to the public was brilliant....

  27. adnim
    Paris Hilton

    Ho hum II (the son of ho hum)

    Please bear with me whilst I wipe the saliva from my keyboard.

    It would appear disreputable is only aware of one of his works, and seems to have taken it as a personal attack.

    Has he ever thought of thinking for himself? Or is he by any chance a policeman? Although this in itself would preclude him from any free thought. Doing as one is told is truly servile. ( check definition of sycophant if one is confused as to why servile may be relevant here )

    I wonder if Graham see's him as his little sycophant?

    So few questions of such little import and so much time to waste pondering them.

    I choose Paris again because you prove my point.

    Thank you

    I quite like the work he did on the wall the Israelis have built around the Palestinians.

  28. Bob
    Thumb Up

    Meh

    I learned when studying art history that art is apparently supposed to be controversial, if we didn’t have people pushing the norms of taste and decency then we’d still be painting stick figures on cave walls. While Banksy might not be the most original he seems to have some modicum of artistic talent which is more than can see said for some (google the ‘Turner Prize’ if you want to see some genuine wastes of skin).

    Love him or hate him he has people talking about him and his work (and through it the works of others). Personally I wouldn’t notice if he disappeared off the face of the earth tomorrow and his art could go with him for all I care. Though full credit to the guy who’s £200k richer for doing bugger all – Carpe Diem…Caveat Emptor and all that.

  29. adnim

    apologies

    Not all policemen are state controlled automatons incapable of free thought.

    There are a lot of decent coppers out there. My sincere apologies to them, keep up the good work in these oppressive and violent times.

    respect

  30. Mark SPLINTER
    Flame

    It looks like you're writing a retarded comment...

    Hello people.

    They said Van Gogh was shit. They said Monet was shit.

    "A conservative is someone who admires radicals when they're dead".

    Damien Hirst is infinitely more obvious and up his own arse than Banksy, but Saatchi buys his shit and puts it in a big white room so you lap it up. Or at least, you will in 50 years when it's "classic".

    Capitalism sets the price, not Banksy.

    And as is pointed out above... you tolerate millions of square metres of printed SHIT from horrifically cynical advertising companies, but you don't like it when someone uses their imagination on a wall illegally. Think about who is the real visual polluter here. Think about who is really adding to society and who is just selling cars with posters of traffic-free roads in a country you can't drive to because of the sea getting in the way.

    First year students talking about Marx and Guevara? HEAVEN FORBID! Why can't they discuss that nice Tony Blair instead? He's an inspiration with his database state and his illegal war for oil.

    Jesus. If you think Banksy is the biggest problem in the world you're a wanker.

    And my £35 print from 6 years ago is doing better than your pension fund, so fuck you.

  31. Chris Hill

    'its easy'

    in reply to the comment above which said something like 'all you need is a laser cutter for the stencils', do you think Banksy just downloads these stencils from one of the many websites out there that host templates, or do you think he actually puts some creative and artistic thought in to producing his own, original stencils bespoke to each work?

    I honestly cannot understand the commenter's who knock this guys work, hes one of the most inventive and entertaining artists this country has seen in a very long time and we should be thankful he's bringing something interesting to the british art scene.

    Look at some of the rubbish that's won the turner prize over the last few years and ask yourself what 'speaks' to you more, evocative political commentary delivered through a medium which in itself subverts the system its making statement on, or an indoor shed.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    No loot for Luti

    The winning bidder isn't going to pay anyway judging by his recent ebay feedback.

  33. Chris Cheale

    Art...

    5% technical talent

    35% originality

    60% ability to bullshit

    This is why illustrators are not generally considered artists - they've got the 5% mastered but the rest is variable. By this measure Banksy is shit, he's got some of the technical talent, a bit of originality (maybe 20 out of that 35%) but fails terribly on that huge, all important 60%.

    Tracy Emin however - 0.5% 30% 55% - giving her a respectable 85.5% - is a proper artist. The pretension is more important than the execution.

    My degree, granted I didn't go beyond BA, is in sculpture... the painting tutors I had were so far up their own arses that farting and sneezing were one and the same. Aaah, vomit on canvas, yes, I can see how that is a representation of the challenges facing a latter day feminist - it must be terrible having to sink a bottle of gin before you can start work.

  34. Luke
    Thumb Up

    @ Mark SPLINTER

    Right on, brother!

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