Owners of Banksy artworks are waiting years for their money-spinning authentication certificates because the organisation dispensing them is busy dealing with fakes, it has been claimed.
Banksy’s Pest Control authentication service is receiving up to 700 applications for their certificates each month, a leading expert on the artist has said.
Joe Syer, who has been trading Banksy’s works for 14 years and is regarded as the “UK’s expert” on the street artist’s prints, said some owners had been “waiting for years” for one of the precious certificates which are vital to secure the six-figure sums individual prints can fetch.
During a sale at Sotheby’s in 2021, the Banksy artwork Girl with Balloon was partially shredded as it was sold. It was later renamed Love is in the Bin
JACK TAYLOR/GETTY IMAGES
“They [Pest Control] have had such a huge backlog, they weren’t really producing them over the Covid period and coupled with the fact they are getting