4 Rooms

I could not believe my eyes. In the TV programme "4 Rooms", people take along to a studio some item they think valuable and a game is played: they meet four professional "dealers" in artifacts, usiually works of art (or things that their owners believe are works of art). It's then a game show. The dealers tell the visitors what they'll pay for the item..... it's more complicated than that but it's not worth going into here because I wasn't so much interested in the game but in the things people brought along to be offered for sale. And in one in particular: a wall with a Banksy work on it. Graffitti in short. Two young bloked wanted £300 000 for it. £300 000 for a wall with graffitti on it? That was not the most amazing thing about it. Surrealistic depths (or heights, depending on your feeling towards graffitti on walls, art, Banksy etc) were reached. The most amazing thing was that one of the dealers offered them £240 000 for it. And there was more amazement to follow. They turned the offer down.
Now, they had spent only £20 000 on it, removing it from its original place i.e. part of a larger wall, and transporting it to the studio. Surely if they had been in their right minds they should have accepted the offer. But no. They thought they were going to get more for it elsewhere. And in retrospect, I think they may have been right. Because the dealer who offered them this massive amount of money told them that he already had someone who was interested in it.
Which brings us to the meat of the matter. There must be market in such things. It turns out that Banksy is not only regarded as a serious artist but his stuff sells as well. I'm flabberghasted. I thought scribbling graffitti on walls was against the law. Which, no doubt, is why Banksy never signs his work. How then can he sell them? And those who do try to sell them: how can they if they're not signed? I mean, anyone could have done them.
But it seems I'm on a different planet from the art world. Tracey Emin is bad enough with her unmade bed, then there was the pile of bricks in a gallery in London; then there's Ligetti in the music world; and now, the wall. £300 000 for a wall with graffitti on it. Give me strength. Where did I go wrong?