More than 150 original Banksy works, drawn from private collections around the world, open Nov. 19 at Saunders Castle at Park Plaza.
The exhibition is independent. Banksy did not authorize it, and he did not help produce it. The Boston Globe reports that this stop follows 19 cities and two years in London.
Two Works Promoted as World Exclusives
The draw inside that large number is small and specific. The exhibition promotes two works as world exclusives: Flower Thrower, made by Banksy as a Valentine's Day gift, and a version of the Mona Lisa made for Brad Pitt. The exhibition includes that Flower Thrower as an original.
The other titles will be more familiar. The exhibition includes Girl with Balloon, Rude Copper and Grim Reaper, along with prints, paintings, sketches and statues.
The show's Boston FAQ says the artworks were certified and authenticated by Pest Control, sold by Banksy to private collectors, and would normally never be seen by the public. Access to that private inventory is what the Nov. 19 opening puts on sale.
Collectors, a Curator and a Castle
Imagine is presenting the exhibition. Tom Zaller, its president and CEO, has said it offers audiences an opportunity to experience the work of a widely discussed artist. Michel Boersma is curator and producer.
Getting the works into one room has been a collectors' project. Organizers say they have spent the last 10 years working with collectors to expand the collection. Trusted Banksy associates, including Ben Eine, contributed privately held works, gifts, hand-drawn sketches and video testimonials. The presentation describes itself as the world's largest exhibition of original and authenticated works by Banksy.
Saunders Castle at Park Plaza has already hosted ticketed exhibitions built on a famous name. Downton Abbey: The Exhibition and Discovering King Tut's Tomb both used the venue. Banksy is an internationally renowned and famously anonymous street artist who began on the streets of Bristol; the images have appeared on buildings, walls and public spaces around the world. This show places that work in a gallery, beyond the street-level setting it came from.
Authentication Without Permission
Boston has carried an unauthorized label on a Banksy booking before. On Nov. 30, 2021, the Globe reported that a traveling exhibition of more than 100 works was expected to arrive in Boston in February 2022. The Nov. 19 show is billed with a larger set of originals.
Authentication is the claim sitting beside the absent collaboration. The Globe reports that the works were authenticated through Banksy's authentication board or other official documents. The exhibition site names the certifier: Pest Control.
Pest Control Office offers an authentication service. It lists £100 plus VAT to process a screenprint and £150 plus VAT for an original, and says there is no charge if the work is found to be fake. The fee buys an authentication process. It does not make Pest Control a producer of the show that hangs the result.
The office has also addressed a London exhibition it does not name. Pest Control's site says the artist was not asked about that show, did not contribute to it, and will not issue refunds for it. The statement is not identified as the two-year London run, and it is not identified as Park Plaza. A certificate and a collaboration are different pieces of paper.
Istanbul, Atlanta and a 2022 Booking
The exhibition name goes back further than these Boston dates. ArtsATL, writing about an Atlanta edition, reported that The Art of Banksy began in 2016, when collector Kemal Gürkaynak first unveiled it in Istanbul. The same account said the show made its North American debut at Underground Atlanta in 2021.
That article was about The Art of Banksy: Without Limits at Pullman Yards, a differently titled edition with more than 200 pieces, 60 of them described as verified Banksy originals. Boston's billing is not that mix. Park Plaza is more than 150 original works. A larger Atlanta display, built around fewer verified originals, is a different offer from the originals number being used here.
The Globe's account of the show now opening is separate from that Atlanta tally: 19 cities, two years in London, then Saunders Castle on Nov. 19. The 2022 Boston dates remain what the earlier story said they were, a scheduled run for a traveling exhibition of more than 100 works. The counts changed. The missing authorization did not.
What Admission Costs
Admission prices are set. Children 4 and under get in free. Ages 5 to 12 pay $15. Visitors 13 and older pay $34.50. The top rate starts at 13, not at 18: a 12-year-old stays in the $15 tier, and anyone a year older pays the full listed price.
The exhibition includes a Flower Thrower made as a Valentine's Day gift and a Mona Lisa made for Brad Pitt. Saunders Castle at Park Plaza opens the doors Nov. 19.
