On October 12th Banksy set up a stand at Central Park South and 59th Street, selling original artwork for $60 a pop (even though each piece is worth hundreds of thousands)—at the end of the day, he made $420, selling work to just three people. He stated on his website that this was a one-off thing, and he would not be setting up a stand again... so naturally, someone else did.
One week later a group got together and sold replicas of the works at the same price, from the same location as Banksy—"everything was the same," except that they loudly advertised the pieces as FAKE. Each was even delivered with a certificate of inauthenticity. They posted a video today from their experiment (which they made $2,400 off of), saying: "we saw an opportunity for a little mischief, and a chance to make a statement about the nature of hype, public personas, and the value of art."
Even though they were open about the pieces being fakes—"our sign said 'Fake Banksy,' Mike assured every customer that it was fake"—they sold out in less than an hour. Unless, of course, the video is fake. And don't forget that "reality" itself is a bogus construct created by our deceitful senses and enslaved minds.
