Many of Banksy’s graffiti pieces were turned into a product to be sold. Now, we can find the Balloon Debate on someone’s wall, or the Armored Dove of Peace tattooed on somebody’s arm. It is important to mention that Banksy has nothing to do with all these reproductions, in fact, he expressed how surprise he is that people are paying tons of money to buy his art.
Banksy made it clear that he is against capitalism, and loathes corporations. However, people didn’t bother paying attention to that when they reproduced some of his pieces and sold them without copyrights. Moreover, many of them failed to respect the cause behind these pieces, which turned these reproductions into a clear cultural appropriation.
I collected some examples of the reproductions of Banksy’s work. While some people might buy posters as a solidarity with Palestinians, many others would cross the thin line between solidarity and cultural appropriation, and destroy the symbolism behind creating these pieces by using them as living room decorations.