Banksy Ephemera

Banky Ephemera

This is a relatively new phenomenon driven by Banksy’s success and the need of the collector.

I decided today it was time to really take a look at what has happened and how things will play out in the near future.

2020 was a breakout year for Banksy who moved from the underground urban art market into the Art mainstream in a very big way, yes large auction houses like Sothebys, Christies and Phillips have been selling Banksy prints and originals for some time but in a very piecemeal way. 2020 saw the traditional art market that deals in safe artists whose stock is already known and has a very well calculated opportunity value.

It would have been very hard to predict that Banksy would not just make his way into this category almost overnight but is now firmly on top of almost all serious collectors lists as something we need to acquire.

For a living artist to make this ascension is truly remarkable to happen so fast is like watching the end of real money and the birth of Bitcoin, it’s that dramatic.

So let’s have a look at what it is driven by and where as a collector who does not have the funds to invest at least £40k ( approx. lowest end for an unsigned Banksy Print ) we go from here.

Clearly a starting point for this trend was the already rising stature of Banksy as an artist to be taken seriously by the Art institutions. However they didn’t see this they merely reacted to the demand late. The people that knew were the early adopters who spawned all types of specialist knowledge and businesses from their smart view that one day Banksy would become mainstream and the source of the product was not traditionally distributed but rather the opposite you needed to be on the ball and in the know to get what was on offer

We are now left with all the major institutions chasing said early adopters or smart brokers who are known for rare Banksy stock, it is known that there are only 30-35,000 Banksy prints in existence ever (Not counting the Walled Off Hotel Box Set print) also within that figure we know many got ruined and lost as a lot of Banksy’s early prints were very low value and people treated them as such, having them framed with cheap tape and even sticking them on boards etc. which is what you do when you spend £75-£200 on a piece of reproduced stencil art right?

So enough of history we are where we are and to buy a Banksy print you now need to part with a deposit on a house or your life’s savings, still a good investment but out of reach for most.

As a collector where do you go from here…..you either run off and look for the next trending artist that is being hyped and values soar inexplicably - no names mentioned. Or you take a deeper look at what Banksy has produced and you can find stuff ( sorry art ) that is still affordable and would give you as much pleasure without breaking the bank. It all comes down towhy you spend money on art, you either want to buy something that you like to look at, you buy something that you think is a good investment or you combine the 2. In my experience when you get those 2 equations spot on you are onto a winner emotionally then you hope it works out financially, almost everything I have bought over the last 20-30 years that I didn’t like has given me no pleasure or profit. Buying into an artist is all about having that emotional connection and joining their journey where that might take you and joining an outsider gang is even more interesting as we did with Banksy.

Over the past 20-25 years Banksy has made a lot of art , most of which is not as apparent as it seems you need to go looking, once you go looking you will unearth a plethora of what we would call Ephemera available at very reasonable prices.

What will happen to this ephemera is very clear , it will disappear as fast as Banksy’s print and originals did into the hands of true collectors who look at his story and journey and want to be involved and hey it’s good fun what you will find that banksy did loads of really good fun things all associated with him getting his art out there, Painting, Books, Music, Cards, posters, Stickers Clothing, etc...he really is truly mixed media artist using any medium to create his brand and what a brand -

Brand Banksy