News / NFTs
NFTs of Banksy, Massive Attack and more ‘on sale’ for thousands of pounds
If you have always wanted to own a Banksy, this could be your chance. The only catch is that the original mural will remain on the wall.
Bristol NFTs appears to be a new website which claims to sell work by some of our city’s most well-known exports as non-fungible tokens.
But Banksy’s Well Hung Lover will remain on a wall at the bottom of Park Street and the tracks on Mezzanine by Massive Attack will not become the property of the person who buys the NFT.
Amid fears that Bristol NFTs could be a scam, the website shows that people are paying thousands of pounds in cryptocurrency to own their own piece of Bristol’s cultural landscape.
At least that’s what appears on the website, which seems likely to be an elaborate prank.
Banksy’s Well Hung Lover and Massive Attack’s Mezzanine are currently being offered for sale via Bristol NFTs – photo: Bristol NFTs
The person behind the Bristol NFTs website says that they are a 20-year-old called Steven West, a student at the University of Bristol.
The website shows that the highest bid for the Mezzanine album artwork stands at 5.25 Ethereum (ETH), which is £11,792 at the current exchange rate; Banksy’s Well Hung Lover at 3 ETH (£6.738.29); and Bristol Grammar by K*Ners at 2.75 ETH (£6,176.77).
“I wanted to tackle the idea of wrestling important cultural artefacts away from public ownership and into private hands,” said West, who told Bristol24/7 that he grew up in Surrey but now lives in Clifton.
“This is an age old concept that we’ve all suffered from and I’ve just capitalising on it really. For the first batch of NFTs I wanted to cover art, music and TV so I chose many of the most iconic images from Bristol.”
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So why are people willing to pay this kind of money for NFTs? If this whole thing is not a hoax. And how is West selling NFTs of cultural property that he does not own?
“In all honesty, it’s gambling,” West told Bristol24/7.
“People invest such large sums of money into NFTs on the hope that the project blows up and they can sell their NFT to someone else for five or even ten times their initial investment…
“My dream is to work with Banksy on a unique piece and I will keep working until I get there!”
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read more: Long queues as five shops across Bristol sell Banksy t-shirts
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