Will the “real” Fake Banksy please stand up?
Spurred on by the emergence of a fake Banksy NFT, the original Fake Banksy returns. As an NFT, obviously.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, September 3, 2021
Hot on the heals of collector Pranksy purchasing a Fake Banksy NFT for over $300,000—the original Fake Banksy has returned. This time as an NFT (naturally).
The story begins on October 13, 2013 when infamous street artist Banksy attempted to sell $60 canvases (worth tens-of-thousands of dollars each) to unsuspecting New Yorkers. In seven hours, he had just three customers.
When news of this broke, the story took over New York. And in that echo of media hype, artists Dave Cicirelli (@dcicirelli), Lance Pilgrim (@TheElroyJenkins), and George Gross (georgegross.com) collaborated to create Fake Banksy—a guerrilla recreation of Banksy’s failed art sale appearing just one week later.
Same price. Same images. Same location. Everything was the same...except for two things:
The public consciousness had changed.
The Banksys were fake.
This was done openly. The stall had a sign declaring "Fake Banksy." Every customer was verbally assured these were fake. And each canvas even came with a legally notarized "Certificate of Inauthenticity."
It didn't matter.
Fake Banksy sold everything in less than an hour. Including the price sign.
Documented on video, “Fake Banksy Sells Out” became a global viral sensation— receiving coverage from Time, Business Insider, HuffPost, New York Magazine, Complex, Telegraph UK, Refinery 29, and dozens more.
The success both complimented and completed the original Banksy’s statement on hype and the value of art, and captured the cultural zeitgeist. Eight years later it remains the unsanctioned yet undeniable companion piece to the historic “Better Out Than In” residency of New York.
The artists now also believe the work was an early and prominent piece of a new tradition—one of Fake Banksys themselves. “We were among the first in a series of unaffiliated works that seize the mischief and uncertainty the real Banksy creates, and uses it as an avenue for unique commentary on the world of art and the world at whole.”
And now this moment is immortalized on the blockchain as a 1/1 NFT. Available now on Foundation.app it its being offered as a reserved auction starting at 3.0 ETH.
For media inquires, please contact dave@rochambeau.xyz
To visit the drop, https://foundation.app/@fakebanksy
About The Artists
“Fake Banksy Sells Out” is a collaboration between experiential artist Dave Cicirelli (NFT DVD, Infinity Cube, Fakebook), mixed media artist Lance Pilgrim (Saturday Warnings, Poison and Passion Studios) and filmmaker George Gross (Paradox X).
