Here is the text that goes with it.


A number of works by guerrilla artist Banksy have failed to sell at a modern art auction in London.

Fungle Junk - a mural painted on the side of a van - was expected to make £150,000 but was withdrawn after a bid of half that price was made.

A spokesman for auctioneer Lyon and Turnbull said the artist's refusal to authenticate the works was to blame.

The modern art sale's "disappointing" outcome was also put down to the current economic climate.

Some 80% of the lots at the auction failed to sale, according to Ben Hanly, Lyon and Turnbull's contemporary art specialist.

'Extreme caution'

A self-portrait of Kate Moss, inscribed in blood by her former boyfriend Pete Doherty, eventually made less than its expected £40,000.

Works by other leading artists including Sam Taylor-Wood were not sold.

Enigmatic artist Banksy refused to authenticate his five works after setting up an organisation, Pest Control, to verify his art after a series of fakes were attributed to him.
Gangsta Rat was expected to make up to £30,000, but was unsold

He has also expressed a dislike for his street art being removed from its original setting.

But the auction house said it was sure the work was genuine and it decided to go ahead without official verification.

Of other main lots by Banksy, only Bomb Middle England sold for £13,000, while a number of prints were auctioned off for relatively small amounts.

On its website, Pest Control said that since its creation in January, 89 street pieces and 137 screen prints attributed to Banksy had turned out to be fake.

"Pest Control does not authenticate street pieces because Banksy prefers street work to remain in situ and building owners tend to become irate when their doors go missing because of a stencil," it said.

"He would encourage anyone wanting to purchase one of his images to do so with extreme caution, but does point out that many copies are superior in quality to the originals."

i really wouldn't have thought legal action was necessary now, vermin will never be used again after this.........end of

billy,
great avatar!

as for pest control, they need to approve or not approve any piece put infront of them. They cant just say they wont authenticate. If they see it, and its fake, they need to tag it and keep record of it. Doing nothing is a crime.

What the "journalists" are missing here is 80% of the works failed to sell at this auction. That is almost unheard of. Although the economy is rough we have seen some recent auctions, such as Hirst, do very well.

I think the 80% unsold is due to the negative publicity over this and apparently some works donated to a pub to be auctioned that the artists are angry over. I think this puts more into question Lyon's credibility as opposed to confidence in the market. However I suppose the next few auctions, Bonhams/Dreweatts will be the tellers.

Don't worry found it!

Eh?

aww geez, you're about to make some enemies.


Anyway, I think a very telling point of this all is that 80% of the lots went unsold even by pretty major artists and the fact that the Vermin pieces got some bids despite the turmoil and the crashing market is a little impressive.

I know the Hirst auction went well due to the circus like spectacle of it all and the incentives to get white cube and other Hirst dealers to get their clients bidding but I think as we get back to the normal auction season we're unfortunately going to see anything that's not really strong, special or iconic get trashed at auction. There have already been a couple auction disasters this year at major auction houses.

eh indeed, Dorothy is a plank

Banksy doesn't do his street pieces like say Neate where he creates a piece which is meant to be taken. Banksy does his art for the people and if some low life cock sucker takes it to sell at auction well I can see why he doesn't want to fleece there pockets. So IMO his view is hey anyone can own one of my street pieces but I'm not going to create an easy avenue for you to sell them. Example Banksy goes out and for all of us does a mural I see it first go down remove it. Does that entitle me to 50k+ I don't get the thought process homeless or not the art was never intended to be taken. And if it is taken well then enjoy it but good luck selling it at auction.

35% is pretty huge for the big two auction houses though and they are much more likely to get lots in that are iconic and quintessential (and like I said I think those lots will do fine avergae stuff will get squashed) where as L&T isn't going to get that must have iconic stuff ——— throw in several lots that got killed due to Banksy crying about them and there you go 80%. Plus there was a contemporary sale at Philiips a couple months ago where a huge amount of lots went unsold. Anyway whatever...

Neither of the auctions I totaled had many pieces worth over 100K USD. In fact in only one of the 2 I checked had one piece that sold at 266K everything else was 92K or less. These were all mid range auctions with lots selling around 3K up. You can go and check both sites yourself.

Again, 35% is double the average indicating everyone being spooked by the financial meltdown but no where near the 80% unsold at lyon. 80% is a Lyon issue.

The Phillips auction on Sept 25 had 29% unsold.

It's all of the early ones, and affected far, far more than 137.

you promise?

Yes the almighty lord Banksy had spoken and contemporary collectors went running and screaming. That's all you have to consider in your world I suppose? Yes my points are completely invalid. I guess.