05 Jan
eBay - Portobello Road Banksy (Final Bid + Removal & Replacement Of Wall!)
So it seams that the Banksy mania has gone to another level. One of his pieces Portobello Road is up for grabs on eBay. Interestingly enough, if you want it you not only have to pay for shipping but also for the exterior wall to be removed and a replacement erected! Ten days to go and it’s currently at £6,600 with a BIN of £1m.
Update at end of auction. Total price - £208,100.00 plus the removal of the wall and rebuilding of a new one…be interesting to see how much that costs the buyer (who incidentally has an ebay feedback rating of 3…5 positive and 2 negative!)
now, i’m a fan of banksy; and a big believer of him actually standing for something good and trying in his own way to do right; and i think the whole him-phenomenon is a somewhat uncontrollable (although possibly to-some-extent managed) thing; and i think the sale of pieces he puts out by whatever (understandly-and-woudln’t-we-all) money grabbing bastards doesn’t really have anything to do with him, and shouldn’t at all reflect badly on him… etc and so on.
so i’m not saying this because i’m a hater of him; far from it… but if i lived near where this ebay’ed thing is (and thank dear god i’m not - and while He’s Here, good luck with west london Big Guy, it’s a hole), i would go out there right now and paint, piss, paste and doodle the fuck all over that piece quicker than it takes to write a slightly rambling blog comment. right?
by the way, happy new year mr reevo ektopia. much love to you and yours for 2008.
January 5th, 2008 at 10:11 pmWell I’ll be very surprised if someone doesn’t go wreck the piece now so it’ll save you a journey ;-)
Happy new year back to you mate.
January 6th, 2008 at 12:01 pmMadness that people are actually bidding on this wall.
I ain’t no builder or anything but I dont see how they can remove the wall without damaging the piece. The above was covered in perspex a few days after the piece was put up to protect from damage!!
I also see that the large rat in Old Street has recently been boarded up to protect it from further damage, as I have heard a rumour that it is also for sale/ or has already been sold.
January 7th, 2008 at 1:20 pmi was ‘this’ close to cycling down with a tin of emulsion myself. but then i thought you never know; maybe the guy selling it has mouths to feed; that he could do with the money and so on.
actually, he’s probably doing alright for himself, given that he owns a property in portobello…
hmm.
where’d i put my painting shoes…
January 8th, 2008 at 2:48 pmGo on Banksy - carry on taking the piss out of the punters buying your work. You’re doing the graffiti scene proud!!
January 15th, 2008 at 2:30 pmSo what is the deal with a Banksy piece? I mean if you see one on something that’s removable, can you just go and grab it and then flog it for 30 grand?
I only ask because there was one just opposite my house on a piece of boarding w3here some building was being done (the kissing policemen). They painted over it the next day, but I could easily have grabbed it.
August 9th, 2008 at 2:07 pmActually I notice that the item has been removed from eBay now As far as I know it’s still on Portobello, at least it was a few days ago when I last looked.
August 9th, 2008 at 2:13 pm