26th September 2007
The infamous superstar graffiti artist that everyone loves, Banksy, has been caught up in an eBay scandal.
Unauthorised prints by the artist have been sold on the online auction site and have experienced illegally inflated prices by a method known as “shill bidding”. Shill bidding is a process whereby fake bids are made by accomplices of the seller to inflate prices and give an impression to others that there is lots of interest and activity in the item for auction.
The unauthorised prints have been listed on the online auction site by employees of the company that is responsible for printing Banksy’s works on paper. The company name is pictures on walls (POW) and the unauthorised prints have been embossed with a replica POW stamp and fake signatures.
Banksy, his dealer and the directors of ‘pictures on walls’ are planning to launch an investigation into the incident. They acknowledge that eBay customers have been “Victims of criminal behaviour”.
In a statement, they commented: "It appears that in spite of strict fiscal controls and strict controls of the physical prints that 25 bad prints have been sold on eBay.”
According to the individual who tipped off about the incident, the fraud started around one year ago by three employees. One of these employees have left to start another printing firm. The prints may have been part of a standard over which should have been destroyed.
POW is offering their support to print buyers that are concerned that they might have a fraudulent Banksy print.
