Unauthorised exhibitions of fake Banksy artwork are an ongoing concern for Team Banksy and their legal guardian, the Pest Control Office. On the redesigned frontpage of the Pest Control website (https://pestcontroloffice.com), there is now a warning about a new, unauthorised fake exhibition in London. It seems to be the first time one of these counterfeit exhibitions has appeared in the UK.
The previous unauthorised exhibitions in the UK, such as The Art of Banksy in Covent Garden a few years ago, did feature authentic Banksy artwork, and the same goes for the ongoing exhibition of Banksy art at MOCO in Marble Arch. One can assume that the unauthorised exhibitions featuring authentic artwork are not very popular with the Banksy camp, but they are nevertheless honest and well-executed.
The same can not be said of the exhibitions displaying fake artwork, like the one mentioned by Pest Control. Not only do they display shoddy copies of Banksy studio work and bad reproductions of street art pieces, but they also market the exhibitions as almost authentic and official:
Screenshot from the fake exhibition website: https://banksylimitless.com/london/
One can wonder how it is possible to market the content as “Museum Quality”, and “For a limited time, explore hundreds of works by the elusive artist, from originals to large-scale installations. Plus, exclusive pieces reproduced just for this show“? Of course, there will be no originals or “exclusive pieces reproduced just for this show”. Are there no marketing laws nowadays in the UK?