MYSTERY SURROUNDS COLLAPSE OF BANKSY SALE TO BENEFIT HOUSING WORKS CHARITY It was presented in a fanfare of publicity as the single-most valuable donation ever made to an Aids and anti-homelessness charity in New York, a genuine Banksy painting that was auctioned for an astonishing $615,000. But, as with so many other events in the controversial career of the secretive British street artist, all is not what it appears. The Housing Works charity that handled the sale has admitted that the anonymous winning bidder has backed out, and there are suspicions that the entire episode was designed to maximise attention for Banksys month-long residency in the city. The charity had said that a woman dropped off the painting , which is entitled The Banality of the Banality of Evil and features a Nazi officer sitting on a wooden bench, admiring a scenic lake and mountain view, at one of its shops last month. It said she told an assistant she bought the canvas there for $50 two months previously, but that she was giving it back to the charity because it was now worth a lot of money. Wil Emling, a Minneapolis-based broker who bid for the painting on behalf of a private buyer, said he had learned that the organisation was in on it all along. He said that Matthew Bernardo, the chief development officer of Housing Works, called him several days after the auction to try to persuade him to make a new offer for the picture, and told him during that call that Banksys people had asked the charity to provide such a landscape that the artist could paint a monster on. Its all part of the hype, part of the marketing machine that is Banksy, Emling told the Guardian, adding that his client had no further interest in the piece. The whole back-story to this painting is completely false … There are just too many questions. Emling said he was told that documents proving the paintings authenticity would only be provided after a buyer had wired money. He said he was also suspicious of the bidding increments in the auction, in which the sale price almost doubled from $350,000 in the final quarter-hour of the two-day online auction that ended on 31 October. Its not uncommon for the price of a lot to go up in the final minutes, even by hundreds of dollars, but I do question that this painting jumped by several hundred thousand dollars. The increments were no longer logical, he said. People were just jumping in, and it looked to me like they were deliberately trying to get the price up. The winner of the auction, listed by a user name of gorpetri, joined the bidding only 17 minutes before its close, and made several offers that helped drive the final price up to $615,000. At the time, Housing Works spokeswoman Rebecca Edmonson said: This marks the highest revenue in the history for any one item sold by Housing Works in any of its 12 thrift shops or online. It means a lot that the artist is using his time in New York to give back to the very community that has been captivated by his every move. Mr Bernardo did not respond to calls from the Guardian on Saturday, but told the online news blog talkingpointsmemo the painting had been sold to another anonymous buyer, for a price he refused to disclose. Bernardo denied that Housing Works was complicit in any publicity stunt organised by Banksy or his British-based handlers, known as Pest Control. We didnt know in advance that we were getting this. It was one of the largest gifts Housing Works has ever received and were thrilled, he said. He added that charity leaders were investigating why the winning bidder defaulted. Emling said he hoped the publicity over the failed auction of the painting would encourage public donations to help Housing Works make up the money it should have received. If Banksys going to claim the credit for raising $615,000 for them, its a shame they didnt get the money, he said._GuardianUK
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 22:13:00 +0000
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