Banksy • Sale Ends Today, by rockbeer on Feb 14, 2019 11:56:54 GMT 1,

Feb 13, 2019 19:52:43 GMT 1 Rouen Cathedral said:

How many times do people say 'never buy a banksy without a coa', 'get PC cert first'. The old it's not authentic until proven so.

If you go over a friend's house and they have a banksy on the wall. Do you ask if they have a PC cert. If they say no do you judge them? Do you assume it's real or fake? Should you view it questionably or as not a banksy cause they don't have one?

That's the problem with PC and Banksys control over their market.

More fool me for getting involved, but... what you've done here is outlined a situation (well, in fact you've barely done that, just asked loads of purely rhetorical questions as usual) and then deemed it a problem.

But you haven't said why you think it's a problem.

So... enlighten us. Why in your opinion is the issuing of PC COA's 'a problem'?

People are quite at liberty to buy Banksy prints with or without COAs. (Remember the same risk of fakery exists when buying any art). Why is it a problem that PC offer an extra layer of reassurance for those that want it?

No one (except possibly you) is saying that a Banksy isn't a Banksy unless it has a COA. It isn't a question of it not being authentic until proven so – it's a question of taking reasonable steps to eliminate doubt, as always when it comes to the authentication of art.

You talk about this 'problem' as though it were unique to the Bansky world. How many people do you think have fake Warhols hanging on their walls? And what would Warhol collectors give for a reasonably-priced, reasonably reliable method of helping to determine authenticity?

You ask what the motivation is. Though as you well know, none of us here can answer that definitively. (You don't, by the way, get to score a point, or 'win', or whatever bizarre thing it is that happens in your head simply because you've stumbled on a question to which no one knows or is willing to share the answer.) We can only speculate. So take your pick from the following speculations (or feel free to add some of your own. Bearing in mind that we aren't likely to agree, so in the absence of a PC-authenticated answer it's kind of a pointless exercise):

– Because Banksy has a kind heart

– Because Banksy recognizes that by encouraging replication of his art in the early days when it wasn't worth anything he has contributed to a situation where people are getting ripped off by cynical exploiters, and has decided to do what he can to address this because he bears a significant degree of responsibility for it

– Because Banksy's entourage got sick of fielding authenticity enquiries on an ad hoc basis and insisted he put some kind of formal process in place

– Because so many people were faking his work that there was a real risk of the focus being not on the art itself but on all the fraudulence going on around it. That presented a genuine threat to his credibility, and therefore on his ability to carry out his projects, and was therefore something that he had to try and address.

– Because issuing COAs is a massive earner, and Banksy wants nothing more than to get rich by running a fake service ostensibly designed to guarantee the authenticity of his art but with the real intention of ripping off his many admirers for every last penny he can extract from them.

– Because Banksy is a masochist who figured that offering an authentication service would give people a big stick to beat him with.

I find it ironic that you of all people should spend so much time concerning yourself with the subject. In the sense that authenticity is not something that seems to trouble you too much on a personal level.

Feb 13, 2019 19:52:43 GMT 1 Rouen Cathedral said:

How many times do people say 'never buy a banksy without a coa', 'get PC cert first'. The old it's not authentic until proven so.

If you go over a friend's house and they have a banksy on the wall. Do you ask if they have a PC cert. If they say no do you judge them? Do you assume it's real or fake? Should you view it questionably or as not a banksy cause they don't have one?

That's the problem with PC and Banksys control over their market.

More fool me for getting involved, but... what you've done here is outlined a situation (well, in fact you've barely done that, just asked loads of purely rhetorical questions as usual) and then deemed it a problem.

But you haven't said why you think it's a problem.

So... enlighten us. Why in your opinion is the issuing of PC COA's 'a problem'?

People are quite at liberty to buy Banksy prints with or without COAs. (Remember the same risk of fakery exists when buying any art). Why is it a problem that PC offer an extra layer of reassurance for those that want it?

No one (except possibly you) is saying that a Banksy isn't a Banksy unless it has a COA. It isn't a question of it not being authentic until proven so – it's a question of taking reasonable steps to eliminate doubt, as always when it comes to the authentication of art.

You talk about this 'problem' as though it were unique to the Bansky world. How many people do you think have fake Warhols hanging on their walls? And what would Warhol collectors give for a reasonably-priced, reasonably reliable method of helping to determine authenticity?

You ask what the motivation is. Though as you well know, none of us here can answer that definitively. (You don't, by the way, get to score a point, or 'win', or whatever bizarre thing it is that happens in your head simply because you've stumbled on a question to which no one knows or is willing to share the answer.) We can only speculate. So take your pick from the following speculations (or feel free to add some of your own. Bearing in mind that we aren't likely to agree, so in the absence of a PC-authenticated answer it's kind of a pointless exercise):

– Because Banksy has a kind heart

– Because Banksy recognizes that by encouraging replication of his art in the early days when it wasn't worth anything he has contributed to a situation where people are getting ripped off by cynical exploiters, and has decided to do what he can to address this because he bears a significant degree of responsibility for it

– Because Banksy's entourage got sick of fielding authenticity enquiries on an ad hoc basis and insisted he put some kind of formal process in place

– Because so many people were faking his work that there was a real risk of the focus being not on the art itself but on all the fraudulence going on around it. That presented a genuine threat to his credibility, and therefore on his ability to carry out his projects, and was therefore something that he had to try and address.

– Because issuing COAs is a massive earner, and Banksy wants nothing more than to get rich by running a fake service ostensibly designed to guarantee the authenticity of his art but with the real intention of ripping off his many admirers for every last penny he can extract from them.

– Because Banksy is a masochist who figured that offering an authentication service would give people a big stick to beat him with.

I find it ironic that you of all people should spend so much time concerning yourself with the subject. In the sense that authenticity is not something that seems to trouble you too much on a personal level.