Banksy, The most famous street artist in the world sold originals for 60$ in Central Park
Banksy is the kind of guy that loves a good prank.
Usually, the victims are authorities and police forces in different countries all over the world and especially in London.
But on one day in 2013 his prank victims were regular people on the streets of New York.
Banksy has set up an art selling stand in Central Park and sold his original and signed works for 60$ without letting anyone know.
The poor victims never saw it coming - on the next day Banksy published the details about his prank and they found out that the 60$ paintings they bought are actually worth between 50,000$ and 150,000$ each.
Banksy has made 420$ (as some of the buyers bargained for discounts). It's hard making a living as an artist!
source: Banksy's NY Youtube channel
I bet the dude that bought four of them because he needed something to put on the walls of his new apartment felt really cheated afterward.
- Is this the best art purchase of the past century? Possibly, but that's not a fact.
- Was the next day full of people looking for an old guy selling pictures in Central Park? probably, but that's also not a fact.
Bonus: If you want to get to know Banksy a bit better, you can watch the awesome film he directed about a guy the follows him: Exit Through the Gift Shop
Bonus 2: Banksy recently opened a Hotel in Bethlehem called "The Walled Off Hotel" with a crazy design
I guess the point of all of that was to show the idiocity behind the art buying world. An art work is only worth 50,000$ if somebody "important" decided that. Not because it really is more valuable than an art work sold for 60$.
It is all a matter of if a big gallery likes you and how you are being marketed that sets the price of your art, not your actual art.
I totally agree!
Bansky is a "throw the truth in your face" artist. He does it a lot and in a very brutal way.