Will The Herald Banksy Newspapers Resell?

News

By RC Staff

25 June 2023

Art collectors across the world have a unique opportunity to purchase a Banksy print right now. Special versions of The Herald’s front page feature a Banksy artwork, and is officially sanctioned by the artist. Collectors and interested parties have quite some time to buy one of these papers if they’re interested, and the price is quite low. All together, it presents quite an interesting situation. On the one hand, it’s possible that these front pages will be nothing more than a footnote in the future. On the other, they may be genuinely collectible, and a profitable investment for a reseller. Let’s dive in.

What is The Herald Banksy Newspaper

To answer this, we’re gonna need to go into a bit of background. On June 18, the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art opened its doors to present something special: Banksy’s first solo exhibition in 14 years. The show features an incredible, wide-ranging view throughout Banksy’s life and work over the last 25 years.

In addition to the various artwork produced in his career, there are also more personal items such as the stencils used to produce graffiti out in the world, clothing items, and even a toilet.

The Banksy exhibition, called “Cut and Run”, is set to run through the summer, and will close on August 28. If you’re in the area, it’ll run you £15 to get in.

A notable part of this show is that it was kept entirely secret until just days before the opening. In an interview with The Herald, GoMA Museum Manager Gareth James revealed he kept the exhibition hidden not only from the public, but most of the museum staff as well. It wasn’t until June 14, four days before opening, that anyone knew what was about to be shown.

The privilege of breaking the news was given to The Herald, which ran a special front page depicting a Banksy artwork on June 15. Evidently, Banksy was evidently looped in on this idea because he sanctioned the cover, and these issues of The Herald are one of the very few pieces of Banksy-approved uses of his artwork by a company. That may not sound like a big deal, but it sort of is. While these newspapers aren’t technically a Banksy print, they’re pretty much the next best thing.

Recognizing the opportunity, The Herald is a running a special sale of the June 15 edition of the newspaper, and is selling back issues to the entire world for a low, low price.

How to buy The Herald Banksy Newspaper

Right now, and presumably through the exhibition, you can buy the June 15 The Herald Banksy Newspaper from The Herald’s webstore. The price? £2.20, or a little under $3. Orders outside the UK are limited to 10 copies maximum.

Shipping costs are a factor, but if you were to buy 10 copies of the newspaper and ship them to the US, it will run you somewhere around $50, less than $5 per copy.

So, $5 newspapers, limited to 10 per order, and seemingly produced in fairly massive quantities. As a reseller, all of these may not seem very tantalizing. Let’s look at the long-term value of these papers, and give our thoughts on whether they’re worth buying.

Will the Herald Banksy Newspapers rise in value?

Ok, first, we need to say this is all speculative and there’s a fair degree of risk involved if you intend to resell these newspapers. Do your own research! That said, let’s talk about why a collector might pay extra for one of these in the future.

For one, we can’t overstate the importance of these newspapers being endorsed by the artist. Banksy’s official stance on the usage of his art is “no commercial use“, and it’s been years since he’s given official approval to an exhibition of his work. “Cut and Run” and The Herald’s special front cover are both huge exceptions to a rule that is very rarely broken. For a serious Banksy collector, the events of this summer are worth sitting up and taking notice.

And while the newspapers are not technically a print, they sort of technically almost are. After all, it’s an endorsed reproduction of Banksy’s artwork being sold. It’s a stretch sure, but worth noting. Additionally, the quality of the newspaper’s printing is high, and would make for an ideal display piece.

Now, it’s at this point that you might be saying “Ok, that all sounds well and good, but did you guys forget about the production? They’re gonna sell thousands of these!” While it is true that The Herald will sell a June 15 issue to anyone willing to buy one, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re will be a ton in circulation by the exhibition’s close. There may be plenty of people interested in buying one of these who simply don’t know it’s an option.

In a few months (or years), we may come to find that actually, not a ton of these issues were printed, and suddenly the demand has come around. Maybe collectors who missed out want to have one or five and put them up on their wall. Maybe a Banksy dealer wants to keep a supply on hand to sell to folks, and needs to stock up from a reseller. Maybe.

Or, they might be completely worthless in a few years, or The Herald simply elects to continue selling them after the exhibition closes. Without a crystal ball, it’s hard to predict the future with an item produced in this scale.

We can’t say with certainty that these will resell, but we wanted to present the opportunity. This is definitely NOT something to throw your life savings at, but if you’ve got $50 you could stand to lose, this may be an investment that ends up paying out in a few years. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Want an example of a Banksy print that definitely did resell? Check out our article on these Girl With Balloon prints. Unsigned prints sold for $75 in the mid 2000s, and they now regularly gavel for more than $100,000. Talk about investing in art.