[johnas]

Peeps

Question for youse regarding provenance. I've searched the archives and don't think this has been covered (if it has I've missed so soz)

When buying off ebay, what should you ask the seller for re: provenance. If you buy a print, should you be supplied with the original reciept / proof of purchase?

Then, once in your hands, do you need to contact POW/Laz etc to change the name of ownership? Is this something they keep records of?

ta,
J

[manchestermike]

It's difficult - some of the older prints especially may have changed hands more than once so provenance is difficult to obtain - you should be ok with a 'trusted' seller.
For example I have a Monkey Queen (signed) I bought off eBay in mid 2005 (a couple of 100 quid ) but at the time didn't think to ask for the receipt etc - this will be the case for many older prints.
All my other prints I have bought from PoW so have the confirmation emails - but again with older Banksy prints people may not (probably have not) kept these... I mean why would they at the time?

[RBK]

POW doesn't update their records - they are just able to establish who the original owner is - they don't track all the changing of hands. The most important thing to do when buying a print is have: an original receipt, email correspondence, ebay/paypal logs, bank statement etc.

Provenance in a sense means - the story behind the piece. So as long as you can document the changing off hands - you can establish the piece's authenticity. I keep a binder with all my art purchases and the various documentation. Hope this helps.

[johnas]

ta muchly for the heads up.... guess all I've gotta do now is raid a bank in order to get a collection together ;D

J

[foundation]

rklimek said:

POW doesn't update their records - they are just able to establish who the original owner is - they don't track all the changing of hands. The most important thing to do when buying a print is have: an original receipt, email correspondence, ebay/paypal logs, bank statement etc.

Provenance in a sense means - the story behind the piece. So as long as you can document the changing off hands - you can establish the piece's authenticity. I keep a binder with all my art purchases and the various documentation. Hope this helps.

All good advice from Robert, have folk started noticing the ammount of Lazy provenance being given at the moment on e-bay, along the lines, of it came from POW originally, if you want you can check with them, it might be nice for some of these sellers to actually get the provenance themselves rather than getting 20 prospective buyers to be bothering POW. IMO

[RBK]

I require a piece have all the provenance before buying it. I have pages of ebay transactions, original emails, bank statements, and the seller of my Laugh Now somehow found the original receipt from the Tate! (and I thought I was anal aoubt keeping sh*t.

Agree with you foundation - sure that annoyed the hell out of Steph.

[Zippy]

fear not, there have been no documented fakes (yet!) on e-bay. We are all aware of the back door prints which are are not signed or numbered and should be avoided.
I have bought many prints (always from trusted e-bayers with good feedback) and have not had a problem. Remember before many of you came across banksy, prints were changing hands at £60-80 so provenance was not requested nor paperwork kept.
Always use my mantra of 'it it looks too good a deal - it probably is' and trust your gut instinct.
Z

[danvnuk]

have folk started noticing the amount of Lazy provenance being given at the moment on e-bay, along the lines, of it came from POW originally, if you want you can check with them, it might be nice for some of these sellers to actually get the provenance themselves rather than getting 20 prospective buyers to be bothering POW. IMO

I agree - its not hard to drop POW an email and ask for confirmation -

I did it recently with one of my prints .

I have a tattered barely legible thermal receipt from Tom Tom, that I got when I purchased it. (Why didn't I ask for a written receipt??!! lol) but emailed POW to confirm that this print was indeed assigned to Tom Tom from them. It took about a month to get a reply, but I recieved the confirmation I wanted.

Not thinking of selling - but if I ever do.....

Handy to have ;D