Paper Mag: Marc Schiller on Commerce
The Original Link to Paper Mag is Here
Marc's Original Wooster Post is Here
Props to Crystal for the tip
Last year Marc Schiller wrote a blog for his site WoosterCollective.com called "The Banksy Effect," in which he addresses the abrupt and remarkable changes that were taking hold in the London street-art scene. To Schiller, it appeared that after five years of just barely inching along, the market for street art in galleries had suddenly hit the roof, and the kinds of pieces that had gone unsold for years prior were selling at an insane rate and even crazier prices. Schiller could think to chalk it up to only one thing, or man, rather: Banksy, the Bristol-born stencil artist whose work went from streetscapes to auction house must-haves in a hot second, and who was fast becoming a major figure in the fine-art world.
"Soon after we published the blog, "Space Girl and Bird," a Banksy stencil created for a Blur CD cover sold at Bonhams auction house in London for $575,000 -- 20 times the estimate, making it the most expensive BANKSY ever sold at that time.
Back then, my thinking was that everyone was benefiting from this "Banksy Effect" -- artists, gallerists and collectors alike. But now things are a lot less clear. Still fueled largely by London-based buyers, the market for street art has in many ways become completely irrational.
