Page 63 - Arts Management Magazine Iss 1

BANKSY
Dog. So we did this and then one came
after the other. I got officially contacted
by Pest Control and they condemned my
first Banksy show with original artwork,
which was kind of acknowledgement for
me that what I do is right. Then I be-
come part of his marketing strategy, the
good guy Banksy, the bad guy me. So it's
a very good thing.
MR: What were the most difficult Banksy
works to acquire?
SK: The work from Palestine was hard to
get it out because of the authorities be-
cause there's no open border and so this
was very difficult. The rest is quite easy,
people call you from London, people call
you from New York, they have a build-
ing. I got a few calls every day, ”we have
a Banksy,” from his New York tour. So I
looked at them and some we came to an
agreement.
MR: So people come to you.
SK: Yes. Because they want to make money
with it.
MR: Tell me about Banksy’s New York
residency.
SK: The New York residency pieces are a
little less quality than the London works.
NEW YORK
You know he's from England
and making 30 pieces in one
month, it's a little bit inflation- spaces in the world, the audience would
ary. For collectors, not for me.
I think half of the works had
been destroyed, so there were
15 available, out of the 15 we
had 5, and we sold two. Per-
sonally, I like the works the
most from England because
this is where he comes from.
These are his roots. In the end
they all sell though. It could
take two or three or four years,
which is fine for us. One thing
for sure is that Banksy attracts a lot of
attention, and love, and braveness, to
the people. We have people coming ev-
ery day, “oh Banksy, Banksy, Banksy.”
But between liking Banksy and paying
$300,000, $400,000, $500,000 without
knowing who he is, without a certificate,
is a different story.
MR: How do you respond to people like
former Mayor of New York, Michael
Bloomberg, who said, “running up to
somebody’s property or public property
and defacing it is not my definition of art.”
SK: He is right.
MR: You were featured in the HBO doc-
umentary, Banksy Does New York. As I'm
sure you're aware, there are people in the
art world that believe that selling a pub-
lic art is not ethical. Many compare it to
stealing. What do you say to people who
claim you're selling Banksy’s stolen art?
SK: I think they are wrong. Because legal-
ly the owner of the property is the own-
er. Second of all, like Mayor Bloomberg
said, it's vandalism, and third, without us,
90% of the Banksy’s would be destroyed.
I think what we do, and I think Banksy
agrees with it, is good. The works are sal-
vaged and saved. Art Miami, for exam-
www.ArtsManagementMagazine.com I Arts Management Magazine 63
ple, works from Bethlehem, from Lon-
don, from New York, from all kinds of
never see so many works at one space like
at art Miami show. Plus, art doesn't come
flying out of the wall. It's a restoration
process, a lot of money. But I'm not doing
this only for the money I do this because I
like the work and I want to do something
good. And to all these people, they are
jealous that they cannot do what I do.
MR: So when they say you’re the villain,
you say?
SK: Very cool, because like Hitchcock
said, every good movie has to have a vil-
lain. And I'm the villain in this movie.
MR: What would you say to Banksy if
you met him?
SK: I would say look make it easier for
me. Put the work on my wall, make some
canvases, and I’ll sell them for you at the
best price you can believe.
MR: We’re also featuring a wonderfully
curated Banksy exhibit in Amsterdam,
This is Banksy.
SK: But they don’t have the original
works, that’s different. I think I sell the
real Banksy’s because he’s a street artist.
I’m the only one who’s selling Banksy
street art and Banksy considered himself
a street artist. So the only guy selling orig-
inal Banksy’s in my opinion is me.
MR: Thank you for sharing with the Arts
Management audience, Stephan.
SK: You're quite welcome. ?
Please let us know what you think. Is art on public
property, art? Is it ethical to sell street art?
What is art?