Fake Glasgow Banksy's patriotic rodent is graffiti, not art, market forces decree – Scotsman comment

After deciding graffiti thought to have been by Banksy is not ‘genuine’, Glasgow City Council is to remove it

When is graffiti a scourge of society and when is it a work of art to be cherished? It appears that, according to Glasgow council, the answer can be found in a simple question: “Was it by Banksy?”

An ‘unauthorised’ painting off Buchanan Street – of a rodent wearing a Union Jack hat and playing a drum inscribed with the words “God save the King” – is to be removed after it was established it was not “genuine”, ie that it was not by Banksy, whose art is currently on display at the nearby Gallery of Modern Art.

The work by the mysterious ‘Glasgow Banksy’ (Ganksy? Glanksy? Bankswegian?) will be no more. However, given his graffiti had already been graffitied over itself, this may not be such a loss.

Some may be outraged, decrying the council as philistines only interested in art’s financial value. However, market forces can provide a rational way to make such decisions: art that’s liked by enough people becomes valuable and so is saved; work that is not, particularly of the guerilla variety, takes its chances.