The Capitalist: Banksy isn’t cool anymore but do you know what is? Toe wrestling

City rumours, whispers and gossip with The Capitalist, this week including Banksy fans cashing out, deals breaking but friendships forming and City boys oiling up for the World Toe Wrestling Championships

No money in the Banksy

Banksy has been painting the town once again, and hardly an article could go up with the latest hot take on the meaning behind the murals before the notorious street artist had whipped out another stencil and slapped another anodyne animal onto a London wall. So, what is the hidden meaning? The Capitalist has the inside scoop: desperation.

That’s right, according to a leading Banksy dealer, the artist has rather been losing his cachet over the last three years, and – more crucially – his print revenues have collapsed, with the average selling price of a Banksy print having dropped from almost £60,000 to around £32,000 between 2021 and 2023. “He’s hardly on the breadline but he is considerably poorer than he was five years ago,” the dealer told The Capitalist, adding that he believed the artist had maintained his membership at the Groucho Club nevertheless.

What’s more, it’s City boys that are to blame. The rise of amateur art dealers in 2021, who sought to make a quick buck off of trading Banksys, were forced to pay hefty royalties to the artists firm a year later due to accidentally crossing from “dealers” to “collectors”, resulting in the market “stopping overnight”, according to our Banksy bigwig. “They were caught out playing in a game that they didn’t understand.” Tut tut, best stick to the stocks and shares boys.

As for the London murals, the dealer speculated they were not all done by Banksy himself. The “poor execution” of some – notably the two elephants, on which paint can be seen dripping from the trunks – suggested they were etched by less experienced members of the artist’s team. Any meaning to the images themselves? Intentionally bland, according to our expert, who said Banksy was trying to show a “non-aggressive” side to him to create a squeakier brand image. Perhaps that explains the launch this week of a new Banksy exhibition at the Grove Gallery that’s presumably in cahoots with the artist, where a “surprise original” is being revealed. A press release, which was littered with typos, insisted the exhibition “taps into the ongoing relevance of his art”. Doth Banksy protest too much?

Ladies that lunch

Rumours that Liontrust was looking to strike a takeover deal for UK rival Artemis were quashed almost as soon as they began swirling a few months ago, with acquisition-keen Liontrust refuting reports that it had its eyes on the London boutique asset manager. But that hasn’t got in the way of a budding asset management friendship since. Sources told The Capitalist that Liontrust CEO John Ions and an Artemis senior exec have been lunching together frequently in the last few weeks, despite there being no deal back on the table. It seems there was just a spark. 

Toe Wrestlemania

Off to Wetton, Derbyshire, where City workers are soaking their toes in oat milk to prepare for the World Toe Wrestling Championship. Wriggling into action on 31 August, 49-year-old finance manager Clive De Silva will represent the City. A participant since 2009, De Silva finds the sport “the perfect chance to leave the hustle and bustle” behind. With baby’s-bum-soft toes, he’ll take on hundreds of international competitors including Ben Woodroffe, aka ‘Toe-tal Destruction’, hoping to lift the golden toe prize for a third time. Could this be the next sport to gain a spot at the 2028 Olympics in LA? De Silva is keeping his toes crossed.