If you were in Central Park Sunday, you were in for a surprise. As part of his residency, Banksy set up a sales booth with 100% genuine, signed canvases. The Banksy twist? The sale was unannounced and almost wholly unremarked upon. Though there were dozens of pieces of art worth probably hundreds of thousands of dollars, only three people made purchases for grand total of US$420 in sales. One of those people even managed to haggle the price of their purchase down by half. The Guardian estimates, the artwork sold could be valued at about US$225,000, so I'm guessing that those three people probably woke up Monday feeling like they had won the lottery.
Of course, few people would have guessed that these were authentic Banksy works, both because the artist is so high profile and because New York City sidewalks are littered with people selling Banksy ripoffs. The performance piece continues Banksy's theme of examining the value of street art. After all, if we value art for its beauty, why should it matter whether or not it's authentic?
For those of you following along the past few weeks via Instagram, Banksy’s website (or perhaps following his tracks around New York), the artist has been creating a new artwork every single day in October as part of his "Better Out than In Residency."
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