Thread by @NiftyMiki, #NFTCommunity what is your take on fake artists who are here just [...]

#NFTCommunity what is your take on fake artists who are here just for the money grab?

I'm speaking about 1 artist in particular who I was trying to expose through DM but he decided to block me instead. @realbankso you are about to be exposed.
Please read thread and RT. #NFT

#nftart
2 Bankso slid into my dms as I had pointed something out that I completely disagreed with. As I was speaking to him everything he was saying didnt quite add up. He was extremely sus, and I could notice right away he had a god complex.
https://foundation.app/bankso

3 Regardless as I was looking through his fnd page.

I noticed a common theme. His work is all ripped. I was in disbelief as someone new in this NFT space, I realized that Bankso was an influential player and was recognized by many OG's from within the NFT space.

4 I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt by asking how his process worked or that maybe he was a collage artist but as you can see he insists that "you give me a pencil i make u an artwork" etc etc implying that he does all of his work.

5 He is trusted within the community with really no basis. No one questions his work or his process, everyone in this community is so positive that no one wants to call him out. I understand there are collage artists and that is a definitely a thing and Ive no issues with that

6 The issue is he doesn't give any credit to any of the work he uses. As I wanted to get him to admit to his fraudulent work I tried to bait him into admitting by acting as if I was on his side but instead he blocked me.

7 Here are the dms and I will be posting "his work" vs the "real work" he is using and ripping.

https://foundation.app/bankso/free-the-world-2087
it sold for a whopping 5.711 ETH $9670USD - there was a bidding war with again a bunch of key collectors from this space.

8 Y'all will now probably have to burn these pieces. I am sorry. He listed this piece as his genesis on foundation under the pseudonym banksÿÿÿÿ. Evident to me that he used this to sell the idea that possibly you are the real banksy who has never shown who he really is. WHAT IF?

9 This starts off the inflated price. As you can see I call him out on what exactly he did with this piece. Super shady start to the business but guess what it worked and a bunch of you big players fell for it.

10 As he was getting bigger, he changed his pseudonym to bankso because at this point he was garnering too much attention and being banksy would be too suspicious. Hence the fake banksyyy evolved into Bankso.

11 Now at this point, when he showed me Sherlock I knew he was panicking. Probably didn't expect me to dig this deep.

12 As I was also looking at his other pieces, I still wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt so I asked him further about his process about one of his recent drops - Burning Soul. https://foundation.app/bankso/burning-soul-7376

Burning Soul | Foundation

If you‘re going through hell, keep going. 2000x1400px

https://foundation.app/bankso/burning-soul-7376

13 Just a simple reverse search shows that he is just using someone else's pieces and claiming it all as his own.
Evidence.
http://www.photosmarval.org/index.php/romantisme/ivan-aivazovski/la-bataille-de-tchesme

14 At this point he blocked me but I wasn't done yet. I have stuff to say about his other pieces also! Up next NO FEAR! https://foundation.app/bankso/no-fear-7030
This piece was a lot harder for me to find proof but as you can see he used this painting as the background.
https://www.toperfect.com/the-tempest-1851-Romantic-Ivan-Aivazovsky-Russian.html

15 I couldn't find where he got the skeleton but at this point I am 99% certain he just found it from a different work and just smacked it ontop of eachother.

16 Want more? Alright, this one was tougher to see but
https://foundation.app/bankso/guardian-angel-12119
You see the black bead necklace? Yeah, compare them all. You can see some are more sharp and some are more blurry. Poor photoshopping work if you ask me.

17 He used an old painting portrait and just started adding a couple things to it to "make it his own" YAH OK BUDDY. He didn't even bother painting over the clothing to hide it.
same as this one https://foundation.app/bankso/an-angel-saved-my-life-5304

An Angel Saved My Life | Foundation

"You have told me about your dreams, your passion and your art. And you‘ve told me about omens. So now, I fear nothing, because it was those omens that brought …

https://foundation.app/bankso/an-angel-saved-my-life-5304

17 This guy was talking as if he knows "real art" and was talking about creating your "OWN TREND" and to be original yet everything he does is clearly lacking originality.

18 Get off of your high horse and stop ripping work from other artists, especially if you aren't even giving them credit. This is the issue with the NFT space still. Credit needs to be given where credit is due.

19 Do I need to say anything about this cover photo?

20 He has made 18.5812ETH $31.4k USD. This stops now. Please spread awareness. As collectors, stop being bamboozled and please do your research on proper artists. All this in 1 month.

21 If you have anyone else that you suspect are ripping people's work and getting away with it, let me and everyone else know. We need to stick together to build a community based off of trust. We do not need fake artists who are here for the cash grab.

22 Now I pass on these 2 questions for you;
As an artist, how would you feel if someone used your work and gave you absolutely 0 credit and proceeded to sell it $5k+?
As a collector, how would you feel buying a piece made from existing artwork that's passed off as an original?

@pennygrit that’s exactly why I asked this question as a conclusion.

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