Email in general is trivial to fake and these receipts are no different. If you are dealing with someone who is selling a fake print it only takes them an extra couple of minutes to fake the email receipt so why wouldn't they? Never rely on an email receipt alone unless you know and trust the person.

takes the piss really - £50 to provide a document for a print that should have as STANDARD had COA's. Its due to their own sloppy work and their lack of foresight that this has come about, and to cover their own asses, they charge us the people that bought and supported their business from day - I thought they were "making art that you can afford".

Sorry to say, that POW is no longer about that, what they are doing is no different to any other person who flips or sells a Banksy piece, they are profiteering from his popularity.

What is becoming more and more evident is, POW/Pest Control/Laz still all have their claws deep into Banksy, and I wouldnt be surprised if actually Banksy is Steve Lazarides, and that this is just one big money making scam!!!

If you buy it to own it, why do you need a certificate? Its surely a surcharge for secondary market dealing?

Theres no argument for this, if you want to sell your print you bought from POW, they have found a way of taking a commission. I applaud them for this move.

Its a charge for people to sell their print on. Its also a great opportunity for me to authenticate my signed Barcode, which I never kept a receipt for and was paid for in cash in 2004 at Santas Ghetto, in that case the £50 will be a small price to pay and no I am not selling it, but it has always troubled me that I don't have provenence.


I applaud this move (those wanting to save £50 though, isn't this service free on pest control?)

ultimately, this service is'nt for recent purchases, its for prints that were bought before it went potty, theres always been a grey area with prints that were bought from the likes of tom tom, & greenleaf so if this clears things like that up, then £50 is a small price to pay. i have a signed pulp bought from pymca, i know it to be genuine, but the reciept has long gone & it has no blindstamp, so this is a big plus to me,
you'd only realise the benefit of a service like this if you were trying to sell something without provenance, there's always an element of doubt from the potential buyer, which inevitabley devalues the work, at this point £50 will seem like nothng at all.
& if you are the buyer, & you're about to shell out 12k on a signed laugh now, would'nt you want to pay £50 to someone for the peace of mind to know that you've bought the real deal?

Does anyone know if you can use this service for authentication of any other artist/prints sold by POW?

all the recent print releases will be registered in the original owners name. Only old prints and sales from the secondhand market will need verification which to me seems fair.

I guess it would be a good idea before you sell to get this authentication.

Im pleased i popped in there 6 months ago.

m

im lovin this ..nice one POW

Well I for one think its certainly worth while depending on the print for me it would be a peace of mind having one for each of my Banksy's I had to buy 2nd market. 50 quid is relative but if you talking signed its a no brainer. At least they offer the option I applaud the effort it is a move forward at least IMO.

especially when the prints maybe framed and they are authenticating ( by the looks of it ) by emailed photos

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PEST CONTROL AND POW AUTHENTICATION, EXCEPT ONE COST MONEY?

Talking to Dora, she said that if you bought the Banksy from POW and are the registered owner on their list she can send you an email confirming this for FREE

The £50 is for a CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY for the earlier stuff

So sounds very reasonable to me?

what paperwork? all you get is an email receipt that could be faked by anyone who is capable of switching on a computer. is that considered a COA?