Morons
An auction room bidding on a canvas reading "I can't believe you morons actually buy this shit". The most self-aware print in the catalogue, and the one this firm finds hardest to discuss with a straight face.
Pictures on Walls · 2006
Edition summary
| Year | 2006 |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Pictures on Walls |
| Medium | Screenprint on paper |
| Signed edition | Reported as 150 |
| Unsigned edition | Reported as 500 |
| Variants | Sepia and later Sale Ends variants recorded separately |
| Authentication | Buyers and salerooms expect a Pest Control certificate |
The joke, and the fact that it keeps working
Morons depicts an auction room bidding enthusiastically on a canvas that insults the bidders, and it has itself been sold at auction many times over, which is the joke completing itself.
It is worth saying plainly that we advise people selling at auction and this print is about the foolishness of buying at auction. The image has not lost value for being an attack on its own market — if anything the self-reference is part of why it is wanted, and buyers are entirely in on it.
Variants, including a later one
Sepia and other variants are recorded separately, and Sale Ends is a later related release listed in its own right rather than as a variant of this one.
Owners frequently conflate the two. They are different prints with different editions and different prices, and the distinction is made from the image and the pencil line rather than from a general description. Establish which you have before looking at any comparable.
Signed against unsigned
Reported at 150 signed against 500 unsigned, the standard shape for the period.
On an image with this much personality the signed premium has held firmly, and the unsigned tier is where most of the available supply sits. Value against your own edition, and photograph the pencil line before anything else.
Before you buy or sell one
- Establish whether you have Morons or the later Sale Ends — they are separate prints, frequently confused.
- Identify the variant; sepia and others are recorded separately.
- Establish signed or unsigned and value against that edition's own results.
- Confirm the Pest Control certificate corresponds to this edition number specifically.
Keep reading
- Girl with Balloon
- Love Is In The Air
- Di-Faced Tenner
- Trolleys (Black and White)
- Trolleys (Colour)
- Rude Copper
- Laugh Now
- Bomb Hugger
- Happy Choppers
- Napalm
- Toxic Mary
- Flying Copper
- Pulp Fiction
- Barcode
- Gangsta Rat
- Jack and Jill
- Kate Moss
- Soup Can
- Grin Reaper
- Applause
- Sale Ends
- Stop and Search
- Very Little Helps
- Nola
- Choose Your Weapon
- What the reported figures actually show
- Pest Control authentication explained
No work described here is offered for sale. Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with Banksy, Pest Control, Pictures on Walls or any auction house. Only Pest Control can authenticate a work by Banksy. Nothing here is investment or legal advice.
Own one? Send photographs of the full sheet and the pencil line and we will tell you which release it is.