[uksnowman]

Just spotted this on POWs homepage. Sorry if it has been repeated elsewhere.

>

Following recent press reports of Ebay fraud relating to Picturesonwalls products we have now carried out a detailed internal investigation.

We have been unable to find any evidence of a serial fraud being conducted by current or former members of staff as has been alleged.
We are aware former staff have sold a number of prints via Ebay, but
we have found nothing to indicate these prints were issued fraudulently.

Our investigation has led us to believe that there are questions over
the provenance of a small number of prints, so if you currently own the following, please get in touch as soon as possible:

Banksy - Happy Chopper # 22, 23, 24, 26, 46, 128, 129, 133 & 134
Banksy - Weston-Super-Mare # 43 & 128.

We actively seek to run a transparent and accountable operation and
will compensate anybody who has been supplied a faulty piece of art
by Picturesonwalls.

Please contact us at [e-mail] where any
information will be treated in the strictest confidence.

[babyford]

Check your HC and WSMs

[RBK]

Hmmm.... quite a quick investigation.

I'm surprised they didn't issue more details of what the investigation found that led to the provenance being questioned on certain prints.

[becksaboo]

so how do the explain the soup can prints? at least they've been more specific

[saltandiron]

Doesn't explain a whole lot does it?
Would love to know why people with those prints have to get in touch with them...

[becksaboo]

they must have known about it for a while otherwise that was a pretty quick investigation.

[Daniel Silk]

Well thats that sorted ;D Well done POW! ;D

[Daniel Silk]

becksaboo said:

they must have known about it for a while otherwise that was a pretty quick investigation.

Yeah, POW had been looking at it for weeks before the newspapers made a of it

[Daniel Silk]

saltandiron said:

Doesn't explain a whole lot does it?
Would love to know why people with those prints have to get in touch with them...

I would imagine it might have been a mistake made with the numbering of those prints maybe those numbers were done twice? Easy mistake to make out of the thousands of prints released by POW over the last few years.

[dave313perry]

Well its a shame its taken something like this for them to start to aknowledge thier primary audience and communicate on a 'down the line' level other than we will be releasing a print sometime this year.....maybe

[becksaboo]

will also be interesting to know what the guardian and arts newspaper's response is as they made some wild acusations if that's all it is.

[Deleted]

It seems that the extent of their investigation is emailing employees and asking "did you do this?" and when they responded "no" they were done. just kidding

[stuey09]

dave313perry said:

Well its a shame its taken something like this for them to start to aknowledge thier primary audience and communicate on a 'down the line' level other than we will be releasing a print sometime this year.....maybe

Fairs fair Dave, they did gives us heads up a couple of months ago. Remember that Friday afternoon when the site went down and quite a few of us didn't dare leave our computors for home in case something came up. They put up a message on here standing us down. Would be nice to have a bit more communication though.

[pw]

so if theres no truth to the allegations we expect legal action to be taken against the artsnewspaper. or at least an official apology from them?!

[Daniel Silk]

becksaboo said:

will also be interesting to know what the guardian and arts newspaper's response is as they made some wild acusations if that's all it is.

Well they have been online here ;D but I really dont think they are gonna comment ;D more like walk way and pretend they never said anything ;D

[Daniel Silk]

amin said:

It seems that the extent of their investigation is emailing employees and asking "did you do this?" and when they responded "no" they were done. just kidding

To me it just looks like an internal problem/mistake that POW will sort out ;D

[dave313perry]

Something inside me said the majority of this story would be a load of bollox. I thought when do newspapers ever tell the truth- especially on first publication of a story!

I thought it was probably a couple of employees selling a couple of prints of theirs - employee bonus' type prints - so they are entitled to do with them what they want - i reckon they sold them on ebay and bish bash bosh...a huge commotion is caused when its leaked and lets add on a load of rubbish about shill bidding etc etc...

bloody papers!!

Yeah i suppose Stuey - just frustrated at the lack of Action - well mentionable action from Pow!!

[veralynn]

No one's perfect - I used to own No 25 GWB and it wasn't until I tried to sell it that it transpired there were two! Easily fixed tho' I went to POW they gave me No 24 (from memory) and always knew that they had made an error way back......its much more relevant now than it was back then but they sorted it double quick and were really cool (especially Steph who was brilliant)......

[Rabbitlegs]

New staff at P.O.W ?

[Daniel Silk]

veralynn said:

No one's perfect - I used to own No 25 GWB and it wasn't until I tried to sell it that it transpired there were two! Easily fixed tho' I went to POW they gave me No 24 (from memory) and always knew that they had made an error way back......its much more relevant now than it was back then but they sorted it double quick and were really cool (especially Steph who was brilliant)......

Yep! They are only human ;D mistakes happen.

[Daniel Silk]

With Rabbitlegs avatar about ;D mistakes are much more likely ;D

[corblimeylimey]

saveordeleteme said:

New staff at P.O.W ?

What happened to this....

" In a statement Banksy, his dealer Steve Lazarides, and the directors of POW, confirmed that unauthorised prints “have been sold on eBay” and stressed that they along with members of the public “have been victims of criminal behaviour”. The company has launched a full-scale investigation and is inviting concerned collectors wanting to reauthenticate their Banksy prints to come forward.

Our source placed around 20 of these on eBay on behalf of the POW employees and believes the number of works sold in this way could be as high as 100. However, Banksy, Steve Lazarides, and the directors of POW estimate that only 25 unauthorised prints were auctioned on the website. "

Their latest statement doesn't say anything about the unauthorised prints (numbering around 25) or the criminal behaviour they were victims of.

How odd.

[Rabbitlegs]

Back to normal now dude :-) Kept gettin hypnotized myself..!

[bonesy]

Dosent surprice me the Weston is specifically mentioned as there have been unnumbered Weston prints on ebay. I started a thread last February about the "extra" prints POW had lying around and there was a cat on the DFace board that went to POW to get an unnumbered Weston numbered that they had initially "forgot" to number.
banksyforum.proboards82.com/index.cgi?board=powlaz&action=display&thread=1171109197

[saltandiron]

corblimeylimey said:

saveordeleteme said:

New staff at P.O.W ?

What happened to this....

" In a statement Banksy, his dealer Steve Lazarides, and the directors of POW, confirmed that unauthorised prints “have been sold on eBay” and stressed that they along with members of the public “have been victims of criminal behaviour”. The company has launched a full-scale investigation and is inviting concerned collectors wanting to reauthenticate their Banksy prints to come forward.

Our source placed around 20 of these on eBay on behalf of the POW employees and believes the number of works sold in this way could be as high as 100. However, Banksy, Steve Lazarides, and the directors of POW estimate that only 25 unauthorised prints were auctioned on the website. "

Their latest statement doesn't say anything about the unauthorised prints (numbering around 25) or the criminal behaviour they were victims of.

How odd.

Well said.

[headphonesex]

admin said:

Well thats that sorted ;D Well done POW! ;D

Come on... with the allegations that have been thrown about, a 'detailed investigation' that's taken place in 2 days and a statement saying 'we've had a look & everything's fine' isn't going to set my mind entirely at ease i'm afraid.

[dave313perry]

Theres plenty more to this no doubt - most of which we will never know or find out but hey ho were just the saft buggers that line their pockets!!!!

[crisr95]

We have now been in touch with Scotland Yard and expect them to launch their own investigation into the eBay fraud. We are still investigating the story and expect to have an update in due course.
Cristina Ruiz and William Oliver, The Art Newspaper

[corblimeylimey]

crisr95 said:

We have now been in touch with Scotland Yard and expect them to launch their own investigation into the eBay fraud. We are still investigating the story and expect to have an update in due course.
Cristina Ruiz and William Oliver, The Art Newspaper

We all know 'shill bidding' goes on at ebay, apart from that, have you anything solid on the 'unauthorised' prints?

[numusic]

dave313perry said:

Theres plenty more to this no doubt - most of which we will never know or find out but hey ho were just the saft buggers that line their pockets!!!!

lol, speak for yourself, they've lined my walls with about 30 x the value of art that I've paid for.