To thwart the opportunists who take his street work and sell it in auction, Banksy has mandated that all of his work be authenticated by a faction called Pest Control.  Read more at GQ.

via, Material Interest

Keepin it criminal. Read about them here

No news of death is good news. Last night, Robert Rauschenberg passed away at the age of 82. I wonder if this news will have an effect on his auction prices tommorow night at Sotheby’s? Read up on it all at The New York Times.

Sotheby’s Wednesday night sale LOT 54, BANKSY, B. 1975

SALE ENDS TODAY, 600,000—800,000 USD, 84 x 168 in, signed and dated 21 July 2006 on the overlap, oil on canvas

Over the next three days, during a very important time for contemporary art, three seminal works by Banksy will come to auction in three different auction houses in New York. Sale Ends Today (above) is a large piece that debuted at Banksy’s Barely Legal show in Los Angeles during 2006. That exhibition was Banksy’s coming out party to mainstream America and one of the key reasons why his works are now showing up in New York auction houses. After the jump, the two other pieces that will be on the block in the next couple days.

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How I spent my stimulus is a great user enabled website to help “shed some light on where the stimulus money is going.”  I have yet to receive my government cheddar but, by the looks of it, the $600 I thought was coming will not be a full $600.

If you need some ideas of where to spread your money around, here are two links to stories about spending.

The 600 Club

Six Hundred Big Ones