Nathan Spicer writes:
The legendary graffiti artist Banksy, probably born in the the UK during the ‘70s, has been anonymous for his entire career. That anonymity has gained him even more attention; even though his works are arguably illegal (vandalizing public property), his pieces’ selling prices easily reach six figures. He might want to consider using some of that money to purchase his true identity, which is allegedly being sold on eBay by jaybuysthings, a man who claims to have uncovered it by tracing tax forms.
The bidding currently sits at $5,000 after six bids were entered. Roughly four-and-a-half days are left in the auction.
On the eBay page, jaybuysthings says,
I have uncovered his identity by matching up the prices of his sold pieces to corresponding tax records. I will reveal no more details. The winner of this auction is the only person I will ever share this information with. The piece of paper will say his name, nothing more. Ebay previously ended this auction because I was selling something that was not ‘tangible’. It is now tangible.
So someone wants to be paid for their effort to unmask someone who prefers to stay masked. What next? Will someone claim that they’ve uncovered the identity of the individual who put a rose on Poe’s grave every year and try to auction that information off?
Apart from what I consider to be the obvious yuck factor in this situation, is there any law that the seller would be violating? If there is, I can’t think what it might be.