Banksy accuses Guess of stealing his artwork; encourages fans to shoplift from the clothing brand

The shop can be seen featuring Banksy’s life-size famous Flower Thrower graffiti along with clothes bearing some of his famous artworks. These clothes are part of Guess’s new collection which has been advertised by the brand as – ‘With graffiti by Banksy”.

 

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According to the company, the collection was created in collaboration with Brandalised which licenses designs by graffiti artists. “The graffiti of Banksy has had a phenomenal influence that resonates throughout popular culture. This new capsule collection with Brandalised is a way for fashion to show its gratitude,” Paul Marciano, Chief Creative Officer, Guess, was quoted as saying by BBC last month.

Following Banksy’s appeal to his 11.6 million followers on social media, Guess closed the store to the public, beefed by the security and covered up the window display. The clothing brand has since not commented on the issue.

Copyright lawyer Liz Ward, founder of Virtuoso Legal, told BBC that Guess “appear to have legitimately sourced the Banksy artwork via a third party, namely Brandalised, who say they have rights to commercialise and use Banksy’s artwork on goods”.

“It isn’t known if Banksy approved or even knew about this deal. If he did know about it, then perhaps his comments are there to create some kind of guerrilla marketing campaign. If he didn’t know about it, then he must be quite annoyed, especially as such mainstream companies and brands don’t accord with his anti-establishment views,” she added.

She added that “whatever the rights and wrongs” may be, it “isn’t right to encourage shoplifting per se”.

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