Banksy – Di-Faced Tenner

If you’re English, this looks at first glance like a typical ten-pound note. Look closer, however, and you will see that instead of the Queen, it shows a portrait of the late Princess Diana. Study the note a little more, and you can see that along the top, where on a normal note it says Bank of England, it now says Banksy of England.

In England, there is an annual festival held in London called the Notting Hill Festival, and one year Banksy printed a load of these Princess Diana banknotes and handed them out as works of art. However, because they look so similar to the real banknotes, people used them as currency, and Banksy now has a possible charge of forgery hanging over his head – yet another good reason he got his anonymity.

While on the subject of forgery, another question comes up: if Banksy is anonymous, how do people know that a piece of work is by him? The answer is that Banksy has a team of agents representing his interests, who call themselves Pest Control. If you have a piece of work you think is by Banksy and you want it authorized as such, you have to send it to Pest Control. If it is not a genuine Banksy, they destroy it. If it is the real thing, however, they issue a Pest Control certificate plus half of a Princess Diana tenner, while they keep the other half.

So, for every piece of Banksy artwork you can see in this museum, there is a corresponding certificate and half a defaced tenner.