Banksy valuation
What a Banksy is worth turns on a small number of specific things. Here is what we look at, and what happens once you know.
We are specialists in Pest Control documentation, Banksy valuations and shipping through the artist's preferred courier, and we have negotiated original and print sales at the major houses with significant reductions in seller's fees. If you own a work and want to know what it is and what it would do at auction, that is a conversation worth having before you approach anyone.
What sets the value
- Signed or unsigned
- The single largest division in the print market. Signed and unsigned editions of the same image are traded as two different things by two different sets of buyers, and are catalogued separately. It is the first question any auction house will ask you.
- Edition and format
- Which edition a print belongs to, its size, and whether it is a numbered impression, an artist's proof or one of the other designations outside the main run. Each sits differently in the market, and the distinction is not always obvious from the sheet alone.
- Pest Control paperwork
- Pest Control is the artist's own authentication body, and the certificate it issues is what the major salerooms expect to see. Whether a work has one, and whether that paperwork is intact and matches the work, changes both what it is worth and where it can realistically be sold.
- Condition
- These are works on paper, and they mark. Fading from display, handling creases, tape and hinge damage from earlier framing, and trimming all read through to the estimate. Condition is judged against what the edition normally looks like, not against perfection.
- Provenance
- Where the work has been since it left the artist. A clean chain of ownership with paperwork behind it removes questions a specialist would otherwise have to raise, and questions raised late in a consignment cost time and estimate.
What we do with it
A valuation is only useful if it leads somewhere. We compare what the work is likely to achieve across the international and regional salerooms, weigh sale dates and settlement periods against each other, and negotiate the seller's terms rather than accept a published rate card. All paperwork and remittance stays in your name. What selling at auction actually costs sets out every fee that comes off the hammer price.
Common questions
- Does a Banksy need Pest Control paperwork to sell?
- Not always, but it changes your options. Pest Control is the artist's own authentication body, and its certificate is what the major auction houses expect to see. Without it a work can still be sold, though the route and the likely result are different. We will tell you which situation you are in before you commit to anything.
- What is the difference between a signed and an unsigned Banksy print?
- They are effectively two separate markets for the same image, catalogued and valued separately, with different buyers. Establishing which you hold is the first step in any valuation.
- How do I get a Banksy valued?
- Send us images of the work, including the signature area and the reverse, along with any paperwork that came with it. We will come back with a view on what it is likely to achieve and where it should be sold. There is no charge and no obligation to proceed.
- What does it cost to sell a Banksy at auction?
- Seller's commission, insurance, cataloguing and — if the work does not sell — an unsold fee. We set out how each of those works on our selling at auction page, and we negotiate them on your behalf rather than accepting a published rate card.
Send images and any paperwork to info@whitebankfineart.co.uk, or get in touch below. There is no charge for an initial view.