Street Art star Banksy ridiculed the art market on October 12, 2013 with an operation aimed at selling his own works at an open-air stall in New York's Central Park for a mere 60 dollars each.
The British artist who has wanted to remain anonymous and whose works are selling at auction for over 200 000 USD a piece has been working for the past three weeks in New York where some of his famous creations have been displayed, notably in Lower Manhattan and Chelsea.
This time he bas hired the services of an old man to sell small size replicas of his most famous works but passers-by were mostly dubious of their authenticity and only a few dared to pay the 60 dollars they were asked for a piece worth in fact some 200,000 USD at auction.
Through this action, Banksy simply wanted to denounce speculation on the art market where contemporary art works are often sold at incredible prices, sometimes over the 10 million USD mark. No need to say that Bansky must be praised for his terrific trick as he amply demonstrated that contemporary art buyers were merely speculators who knew little about the aesthetic value of what they were supposed to acquire.
We at artcult believe that Banksy was utterly righjt to stir consciences about the madness that has enveloped the sector of contemporary art where buyers have destroyed the notion of real collecting.
Adrian Darmon
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