The Banksy Brand: How the Elusive Street Artist Played the Art Market

It started with the idea to capitalize on an untapped demographic of young, would-be collectors who didn’t visit art galleries. Banksy and his former manager Steve Lazarides reached out to them by posting pictures of the artist’s street works on his website before authorities or taggers painted them over. When interest built around a work they’d turn it into a print, which Lazarides might sell out of his car for as little as £10. Eventually galleries caught on...and so the story begins.