Contemporary art sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s have fallen 75 percent this year, a staggering, but not surprising drop following seasons of decline. But what of the market for illegal and ill-gotten goods?

These hush hush sales are hard to investigate, but thankfully there’s a local street art scavenger letting us know that the illicit art market sucks. Last we looked, ifoundfaile was whining about lowball offers on the FAILE prayer wheel he swiped in Williamsburg. Now his profit outlook is so bad he’s threatening to torch the totem if nobody pays up:

hey as promised ill be putting this in the fireplace by xmas if unsold. video to be uploaded soon. thanks.

One commenter suggests he “consider jumping in the fire with it,” hoping to ensure this art destruction tape is better than the last.

Left photo by Luna Park, right photo by ifoundfaile

Not surprisingly, the street art scavenger who swiped FAILE’s first prayer wheel in Williamsburg still hasn’t found a buyer. After whining weeks ago about people only making lowball offers, the anonymous seller, ifoundfaile, is still complaining that nobody is throwing cash at him for the unauthenticated FAILE sculpture of questionable value.

Earlier this morning ifoundfaile made a new plea for serious offers and relaxed his earlier condition that “any transaction will be a cash street corner drug deal style.”

sorry to reiterate again NOTRADES, no trades, means no bartering no swapping, and so on.

sorry ‘what do you want to sell it for?’ is not acceptable

reasonable:
“i want to buy it and offer $_____, i can be contacted at ______ what is your estimate for shipping to zip _______”

not reasonable “i want to buy it and offer lowballing finders fee in hopes that if i return it to FAILE i will get a more expensive print with resale authenticity”

not acceptable “im faile can i please have it back”

Photo on left by Luna Park, photo on right by ifoundfaile

Although his first attempt to sell the FAILE prayer wheel was shut down, the street art scavenger who swiped the sculpture off North 6th Street in Williamsburg is still trying to sell the work for the thousands of dollars it’s allegedly worth. Unfortunately for him, there’s no guarantee the work is authentic, typically a requisite for buyers to drop serious loot on artwork. And with the possibility that FAILE would simply disown the piece if it ever went up for auction or official sale, one forum member suggests it’s not worth much, similar to the BANKSY paintings that failed to sell after the artist’s authentication agency refused to endorse them.

Naturally the anonymous seller is only getting “lowball offers” and he won’t say how much he’s looking for, just that “any transaction will be a cash street corner drug deal style,” making this deal even shadier. Below, the defensive seller belligerently rants about FAILE and everyone who is poking and prodding his sketchy story and sale.

the story never changed, i quickly wrote found in a dumpster in a mocking tone

when i should have wrote

“found on a pile of garbage”
outside sweetwater restaurant, next to a pile of garbage a load of wooden pallets and some cardboard out for the trash next to a lightpost, near a dumpster and a meat market guy smoking a ciggy sorry i do not exactly recall the lunar phase that evening or when i due for my next oil change.

call and confirm that they claimed no ownership and verbally approved taking it they didnt want it, neither did the meat market guys.

all these blogs aggregate information and just rehash scoops by copy and paste which the public accepts as “news reporting” so take off your junior detective caps and stop trying to convince me or anybody i “stole” something.

so i will no longer answer silly questions, i have the piece and will either keep it or sell it.
i will not return it just because you say so, obviously i think faile is a punk and he can knock on my door try his best to get it back, anybody who wants to defend their honor is welcome to confront me to my face. thats the last ill speak on this subject matter.

looking at the comments on the non-art blogs nobody cares, but if your a faile fan your so outraged.

faile doesnt care enough to stand up for himself so why should you.

http://curbed.com/archives/2009/06/03/burg_dumpster_diving_pays_off.php

http://gothamist.com/2009/06/03/faile_wheel_found_in_dumpster.php

http://animalnewyork.com/2009/06/faile-prayer-wheel-suspiciously-found/

After disappearing off a Williamsburg street, the first FAILE prayer wheel has surfaced. Photos of the spinning sculpture were posted on a FAILE message board, with the claim that it was “found in a dumpster in Williamburg.” The anonymous street art scavenger with the piece asks about its value, suggesting he’ll auction it off, before claiming he’ll return the “found” art if FAILE asks him. Until then, he’s using it as an expensive “ashtray/nightstand.” |Gothamist|