An unidentified men went on Antiques Roadshow looking to find the value of a piece of art he ripped off a wall in Brighton, England several years ago. The piece, he believes, is an authentic Banksy.
"It looked loose. Went over, pulled it off basically, a little bit of a tug," the man told one of the show's art experts, Rupert Maas, in a clip that aired on the BBC in the United Kingdom over the weekend.
"I know what it is," the man added. "It was around 2004, basically trying to get a valuation of it."
Maas quickly dismissed the idea of striking it rich with the work.
"The thing about Banksy, and he's not the first to have done this, of course, is that he manages his brand very, very carefully indeed," Maas explained.
"There's a website where you can go in and you can apply for a certificate of authenticity of his work"…
The service that authenticates Banksy's works is called Pest Control.
The man told Maas he had applied for authentication but "they said they couldn't claim it was an original Banksy."
(insert sad trombone sound)
Maas ended their session with:
"I think the message here is that, if you do see a piece of graffiti art out there, leave it, leave it for the public. I'm not lecturing you. I'm just saying, without that certificate, it's just very difficult to sell. With it, it might be worth £20,000 [around $26,000]. Without it, you're nowhere."
Note that the clip in this post is from the banksyfilm YouTube channel. And, for kicks, check out Pest Control's FAQ.
