Urban Art Association

Do you know the name of the first owner?

just email Dora and explain your situation- i've always found her to be really helpful.

I also like to obtain a paper trail from the seller of all prints I buy so it will be available to any buyers in the future. One way to do so is to capture the ebay auction that you won via screenshot, pdf or plain old printing out a hard copy; I would also do this with emails confirming you won, you paid, and any correspondence between you and the seller.

Properly, "provenance" does not simply refer to authenticating the print, but providing a history that can be traced back directly to the artist. You> Previous Owner(s)>Gallery/Source>Artist. Make this path back to its origin clear and easy to establish, and you're good to go.

POW is one very important piece of the puzzle, and most often would be enough. But there is always the specter of possibility that a person along the chain could possibly forge a Banksy print (should they become valuable enough), or obtain a backdoor copy and use a number and name they know will be confirmed by POW. Essentially, all POW does is confirm that A print with certain numbers was sold to A certain person. It does not confirm that you, in fact, are in possession of that precise print.

I doubt counterfeit Banksys are a problem as of yet, but its possible. And if prices continue along the route that they are, it would be very attractive to counterfeiters, some of whom would be very very thorough in producing a convincing fake. This is where having a solid, step by step path back to origin is essential.


BTW, I learned that bit about "back to origin" while watching "Who the *!##& is Jackson Pollock?!" this weekend. Its a great flick. Somebody on one of these forums recommended it, and I am glad to have listened.

BONGO WORRIED THAT POW MAY NOT HAVE CONSIDERED THE RAMIFICATION OF THE DATA PROTECTION ACT FOR BOTH DATA RETENTION AND EFFECTIVE DISSEMINATION OF AFOREMENTIONED DATA TO THIRD PARTIES WITHOUT EXPLICIT WRITTEN CONSENT.

BONGO WORRIED THAT POW MAY BE UNAWARE OF POTENTIAL PENALTIES FOR SUCH FAVOURS THEY PERFORM.

BONGO THINK THAT MAYBE POW SHOULD PERFORM REVIEW OF THEIR ADHERENCE OF DPA TO ENSURE THEY KEEP TO LETTETR OF THE LAW

BONGO SCARED

Who's been dissing Bongo?

You got an email address for Dora?

I tried asking about a couple of prints a while back but got no response.....

Cheers Massive.

Interesting thread - thanks for the info on this..

I guess this asks another question, how many of us would be willing to purchase a print without POW provenance (but the trail of previous ebay owners/sellers)?