How (not) to buy a Banksy online

Increasing popularity of street art is changing the art market and its laws. What used to be rather noble and elitist is now tangential to provocation and art from the street, and fetches top prices. A controversy has arisen among artists themselves: whether street art, once created in public space, belongs in private collections. An art form that is ephemeral in its basic nature, because graffiti or street art are usually not designed for eternity, is countering increasing commercialization through wanton devaluation; artists destroy and remove their works as soon as they run the risk of becoming valuable or commercially abused, sometimes as part of the public staging. The object documented in the book, a rusty wheel clamp, which due to various traces can be attributed to Banksy's environment, exemplifies this controversy. Could an artist want to devalue an original as a forgery, or does an alleged forgery thus become an original?

B. Bernsteiner is an art collector with a focus on graffiti. He finds an object that can be attributed to Banksy on an online marketplace and cannot let go of the search for its true origin. With his own practical explanatory models and knowledge of the forces of the art market, he facilitates an exciting journey back to the beginnings of Banksy's work to the present day of the street art market.

Auteur
B. Bernsteiner ist begeisterter und erfahrener Graffiti-Sammler. Er ist Unternehmer und lebt mit seiner Familie und vielen Tieren in einem ländlichen Gebiet in Deutschland. Seit gut 20 Jahren sammelt er Graffiti Kunst und hat zahlreiche Bekannte aus diesem Umfeld.