Banksy has a new online shop that will vet potential buyers through a professional comedian
Banksy has opened a new online store but in order to make a purchase, customers must first explain why art matters.
Gross Domestic Product, the "homewares brand from Banksy," laid out a registration system on the shop's site, explaining that people can pick only a single item and must answer a question to be considered as a buyer.
"In the event of demand outstripping supply, the answer to this question may be used to evaluate your application," the site said. "Please make your answer as amusing, informative or enlightening as possible."
"An independent judge will examine the tie-breaker questions and select those applications which the judge finds to be the most apt and original," the terms and conditions page states.
"Our judge is impartial and independent, and is a professional stand-up comedian," the site states. According to the BBC, Banksy said in a statement the judge is comedian Adam Bloom.
Interested customers can browse the shop until Oct. 28 and "entrants will be selected at random and offered first refusal to make a purchase within seven working days with a secure way to pay."
The tongue-in-cheek marketplace includes many items from a shop that the elusive unidentified street artist had recently set up in south London.
Some of the for-sale pieces, like a version of the "John Bull" English vest worn by Stormzy at Glastonbury festival, only have one product available -- currently for 850 euros.
Other items include Banksy's Thrower art, which comes silk screened on three separate, framed pieces and are signed, going for 750 euros, a Banksy Met Ball police helmet lighting system, which has 15 for sale at 500 Euros and many more artistic creations.
"Please buy an item because you like it, not because you think it is a good investment," the site requests.
The "Massive Disclaimer" states that "this is not a proper shop," rather an "actual shop" with products made in an art studio "in a workplace culture of daytime drinking."
