Signed or Unsigned

Most of Banksy's early screenprints were published in two editions at the same time: a smaller signed edition, usually 150 prints, and a larger unsigned one, usually somewhere between 500 and 750. The image is the same, the paper is the same and they came off the same press, and the difference in price between them is still one of the largest in the print market.

Across the 34 works in our record that have both a signed and an unsigned edition, a signed print is worth, in the middle case, 2.2 times as much as the unsigned one. That's a rule of thumb rather than a law, and the range around it is wide, but it's a good starting point if you are ever looking at one edition and wondering about the other.

Where the gap is widest and narrowest

The narrowest gap belongs to Applause, where the signed edition is worth about 1.45 times the unsigned. That's partly because the unsigned Applause has had an unusually good year, including a record £96,000 in March, which has pulled the two editions closer together for now.

At the other end, a signed Festival is worth about 3.25 times an unsigned one, and a signed Bomb Love and a signed Gangsta Rat each sit at about three times their unsigned editions. Classic 2004 prints such as Girl with Balloon and Pulp Fiction sit close to the middle, at about 2.3 to 2.4 times.

The reasons for the spread aren't always obvious, and edition size explains less than you might expect. Where the unsigned run is much larger than the signed one, the premium does tend to be a little wider, but only a little, and plenty of prints break the pattern. Most of the difference seems to come down to demand for each particular image, which is the part no formula captures well.

The gap has widened

The more interesting finding is how the gap has moved over time. In January 2021, at the peak of the market, the middle signed print was worth about 1.97 times its unsigned edition. Today it is 2.2 times. So as prices fell from the peak, unsigned prints fell further, and the premium for a signature grew.

That fits what you would expect of a market coming down from a boom. In 2020 and 2021 a lot of new buyers came in at the unsigned level, which is where most of the prints are and where the prices are within reach, and when that demand eased, those were the prints with the most sellers and the fewest buyers. Signed editions are owned more often by longer-term collectors, who were less likely to sell into a falling market, so their prices held up better.

Which is the better buy?

We don't give investment advice, and this isn't any, but the numbers do say a couple of useful things. A signed print costs more than twice as much, and in exchange you get a smaller edition and, on the evidence of the last five years, a print that has held its value better when the market turned. An unsigned print costs much less, and in a recovering market it can move faster, as unsigned Applause and Girl with Balloon both have this year.

The rest comes down to what you actually want on the wall. Every print on this site has its own page with both editions linked, so you can see the full record for each and how the two have moved against each other since they were first sold.