After receiving a plexiglass coating in a near record breaking time Banksy’s bunting piece has remained in place on the side of a Poundland since May 2012. Not any more as witnessed by this photo kindly supplied by Sarah.

Now what would appear to have happened in this instance is that someone’s offered the wall owner some money and it’s been cut straight out of the wall. It’s now appearing on a US based auction house site with an price estimate starting at $400K. This always creates a bit of controversy and here ares my thoughts about the whole sorry mess.

The Wall Owner. You can’t blame them can you? Someone sprays something on your wall, then someone offers you thousands of pounds for it and also to pay for the wall to be restored. Worse things could happen I guess.

The buyer who paid for it to be removed it from the wall. They’ll probably try and defend their action by saying they were preserving it or some other crap. It’s just about the money of course. That art was put there by the artist for everyone to see not for some chancer to line their pockets. Absolute tossers without question.

The auction house. If they are a decent outfit I can’t see why they’d touch this. There’s no Pest Control Office authentication that it’s a Banksy piece and there’s unlikely to be. Banksy doesn’t spray stuff in the street to line the pockets of speculators.

Of course writing all of the above is pretty pointless, shit happens.  Joe Strummer neatly summed it up when he said “Greed, it ain’t going anywhere. They should have that on a big billboard across Times Square. Think on that. Without people you’re nothing.”.

* You need to print it yourself

Uploaded onto picturesonwalls.com today is a right Royal new Banksy image to celebrate 60 years of HRH’s Queen Elizabeth II’s benefit scrounging. It’s free too for you to download and print on anything you like. Maybe you’d like to print off a whole batch and drop them like confetti from a bridge over the River Thames in central London as the Royal Pageant floats underneath? This might actually be quite hard as most bridges are closed with access to accredited people attending exclusive events only. Old habits die hard eh? Welcome to the modern monarchy, three cheers for Liz! Or as a certain Mr Lydon once put it “God Save The Queen, because tourists are money”.

Download a hi-res version of this Banksy image free from picturesonwalls.com

With the flag waving season in overdrive it’s also worth remembering this adage:

Its always interesting when Banksy updates his website as we usually get to see some new works and its a chance to get some older ones confirmed. This time around there’s a good selection in both categories. The origami bird with a goldfish spotted in Lyme Regis earlier this year appears for the first time as does last weeks child making bunting.

Images: artofthestate

There’s a bunch of other new images in the Outside section some of which haven’t been seen before or at least have never been attributed to Banksy.

On the Inside section there are again new works on display including an amazing look at his studio. Go to banksy.co.uk for higher resolution versions as these are just low-res copies.

Images: banksy.co.uk

Finally the shop page has been updated with a new take on the “I went to London and all I got Was This Lousy Tshirt” motif. Here’s a new version that’s still in situ on Sclater Street in the much overplayed streets of Shoreditch.

Image: artofthestate

With no trip to Liverpool planned at the moment I’ve needed to rely on this stock photo from the Banksy website but here is ‘Cardinal Sin’ now installed in the cities Walker Art Gallery. The sculpture (a replica) has had its face sawn off and replaced with tiles giving the impression of a pixelated face to hide the identity of what we can assume is an child abuser. Banksy gave a few lines to accompany the sculpture which according to the BBC seems to be an indefinite loan to the gallery.

“I’m never sure who deserves to be put on a pedestal or crushed under one.

“I love everything about the Walker Gallery – the Old Masters, the contemporary art, the rude girl in the cafe. And when I found out Mr Walker built it with beer money, it became my favourite gallery”.

Banksy continues to explain more about the statue “The statue? I guess you could call it a Christmas present. At this time of year its easy to forget the true meaning of Christianity – the lies, the corruption, the abuse”.

Image source: banksy.co.uk

A little round up of some upmarket Banksy news over which I’m guessing he has little control and a review of another recently released Banksy locations app:

Partners in crime Bankrobber Gallery and the Keszler Gallery have teamed up to have a show of their cut out of the wall Banksy pieces. They have a ridiculous looking video, all dark and mysterious and more than a bit cliched, which documents their journey to basically buy a piece of wall. Apparently they are at pains to point out that they didn’t organise the work being taken from the street in its original location of Palestine, they just bought it after it had been removed to sell on to someone else at what they no doubt will hope to be a huge profit. This is pretty much the street art equivalent of saying “we’re only selling ivory, we didn’t actually kill the elephant ourselves”.

Watch some rather pointless video about buying art nicked off the street here.  Believe it or not there’s actually a part 2 to this!

Bonhams meanwhile had an auction of authenticated Banksy works which went for serious money including screen prints at £13K and canvases for up to 100K. It would seem that while shares are on the slide the world over the art market remains in places very buouyant.

Sotheby’s have some Banksy pieces coming up too. ‘Ballerina With Action Man Parts’, a version of which was on show at 2009’s Banksy versus Bristol Museum Exhibition, is from an edition of 6 and has a guide price of £40,000 to £60,000.

Banksy: Ballerina With Action Man Parts

‘Bullet Proof David’, constructed out of enamel. Fibreglass and wax from an edition of three one of which was seen at the Cans Festival is expected to sell for between £120,000 to £180,000. Finally a bronze rat from an edition of 12 has an estimate of £50,000 to £70,000. This piece is unique in that it has acrylic paint on the rat’s brush.

Banksy: Bullet Proof David

Regular readers may recall that I was pretty dismissive of the Banksy Locations iphone app. It’s still on my phone and I’d like to tell you that it has improved of late but it takes an age to load. Oh hang on, it’s finally appeared now. It is better than it was but its painful in its execution. It’s also still leading you to lots of things that just aren’t there and haven’t been for years. I remain unimpressed even though it now costs 69p (it was originally offered at a higher introductory price claiming it was going to increase in price but that never happened and its now been reduced, huh)?

A far better choice is the Banksy Bristol Tour locations app. It’s a neat looking and more importantly actually working guide to 14 works attributed to Banksy in Bristol including some large pieces in really good condition. Each piece has a photo and a decent write up and the current status is largely correct. If you’re going to Bristol on a Banksy hunt this would be a very useful addition and would save a lot of research. Quite expensive at £1.99 but does the job well.

Right, that’s that little lot out of the way. A small warning, the next update will feature that Blek Le Rat Banksy quote….

Saturday night:

So you’ve probably already seen Exit Through The Gift Shop if you’re reading this blog and maybe you’re not so excited that you’d stay in on a Saturday night to watch it again on TV ‘cos you’ve got it on DVD with the sticker pack, the glasses and everything (unless like me you’ve lent it to your mate who said he’d give it back around Easter but hasn’t quite go round to watching it yet  - AG are you reading this)? Anyway Saturday see’s the premiere of Banksy’s ‘The Antics Roadshow’ film at 10.30pm on Channel 4. From the picture on the Channel 4 website and from Banksy’s own mouth in a 2006 interview with him by Shepard Fairey I’d say it’s highly likely to include amongst others the following impromptu reworking of a British icon.

Banksy: “The most perfect piece of art I saw in recent times was during an anarchist demonstration in London a couple of years ago. Someone cut a strip of turf from the grass in front of Big Ben and put it on the head of the statue of Winston Churchill. Later, the demo turned into a riot, and photos of Winston with a grass Mohican were on the cover of every single British newspaper the next day. It was the most amazing bit of vandalism, because it was the perfect logo for this eco-punk movement that was trying to reclaim the streets, bring an end to global capitalism, and defend the right to sit in a park all day getting wasted on discount lager”.

Enjoy and maybe be a bit inspired….

A few TV listings for your consideration this weekend. Either stay in for the curfew on Saturday night or set your recorder if you’re planning on late night shopping in Comet or Currys. All part of Channel 4′s ‘Street Summer’ season for which they’re probably editing the ‘edgy urban’ advertising trailers right now due to other events.

The Antics Roadshow, Saturday 13th on Channel 4, 10.45pm:

“An hour-long special produced by Banksy charting the history of behaving badly in public, from anarchists and activists to attention seeking eccentrics. Contributors include Michael Fagan talking about breaking into the Queen’s bedroom: ‘I looked into her eyes, they were dark’; and Noel Godin, who pioneered attacking celebrities with custard pies: ‘Instead of a bullet I give them a cake’. Explaining his reasoning behind the show, Banksy said: ‘Basically I just thought it was a good name for a TV programme and I’ve been working back from there’. Narrated by Kathy Burke and produced by Jamie D’cruz, The Antics Roadshow examines the stories behind some of the most audacious stunts of recent times and what motivates the perpetrators, from mindless boredom to heartfelt political beliefs. It includes a world exclusive first interview with the man responsible for putting the turf Mohican on Winston Churchill’s head”.

Exit Through The Gift Shop, Saturday 13th August 9pm, Channel 4

The network airing of Banksy’s first film.

Graffiti Wars, Sunday 14th August, 10.30pm

With Robbo and Banksy’s feud (if you read the last line of Channel 4′s write up below you should know that Robbo is in a very grave condition at present far more serious than this ‘graffiti war’).

“Graffiti – the work of mindless vandals or creative practitioners? To some it is art, to others a sign we’ve lost control of our cities.

Since Roman times graffiti has been a form of anti-establishment rebellion. But today it’s transcending social nuisance to gain cultural and artistic credibility, unprecedented prices at auction and even presidential and prime ministerial approval.

However, at street level a bitter war is being waged between graffiti writers, street artists and the authorities. While graffiti writers face trial and prison sentences for their art, some street artists’ work is lauded and protected behind Perspex.

This issue is at the heart of a graffiti war being fought on the streets of London between one of the founding fathers of the British graffiti scene and the most famous street artist in the world.

In London over the past 18 months the tension between the camps has played out in a battle of spray cans between freehand graffiti writer King Robbo and his nemesis, the stencil-using street artist Banksy.

The graffiti war between the two men began in the early 90s but was re-ignited by what was widely seen as an unforgiveable transgression of strict graffiti rules by Banksy.

It was an act that pulled 80s legend King Robbo out of retirement to retaliate in the place where it all began, the streets.

The film goes behind enemy lines as the war escalates, until tragic and unforeseen circumstances bring about an unexpected ceasefire”

Anyone subscribing to a Google search for ‘Banksy’ can’t have failed to notice that a new ‘Banksy-Locations’ app has been released. It’s been featured in loads of places including on Gizmodo and on the home page of the iTunes App store.  Whilst I’m guessing its a 100% unofficial Banksy related product I stumped up the £1.49 required so I can tell you, dear reader, if its actually any good?

No.

There you go. Of course reviewers normally post a little more detail so read on after the pictures below:

The Camden Maid hasn’t been there for years…so don’t go looking!

This yellow flower piece by Banksy is in the East End rather than as the app claims Kilburn

The locations are hideously out of date. Lots of the listed locations that exhort you to get there quick are now just blank walls. Some of these have been like this for years. I pity all of the people who buy this app, buy a travel card and then try and find the Camden Maid, One Nation Under CCTV, The Museum Guard, Bomb Hugger in Brick Lane, Pulp Fiction in Old Street or The Clash chair in Wapping. That list goes on and on but you get the idea. Recent pieces that you actually may stand a chance of seeing aren’t on the map either.

So, um, what else is there? There’s a gallery of Banksy pieces which includes work which is not even by Banksy – I spotted Orticanoodles and T.wat pieces in amongst the 100 or so images. The videos on display are all already on Youtube and that’s another major drawback of this app. Everything is available elsewhere. The photos are all nicked off other peoples websites / photoblogs. This app has just 100 odd Banksy photos – the Banksy Flickr group alone has over 23,000!

Finally lets move to the last section – Banksy News. Well the majority of this is lifted straight off this very blog. Just to be clear I was never asked if this was OK and have nothing whatsoever to do with this app. It does have one slight advantage though. I can get anything I like to the top of the apps Banksy News list because it automatically pulls post from this blog for its Banksy News section. So I leave you with this final screen shot of the Banksy app – check out the first article title.