Gauntlet Gallery — Banksy Prints
Paris Hilton
Work Summary & Collector Notes
This is Banksy's notorious "Paris Hilton" CD — a real copy of Paris Hilton's 2006 debut album that the artist covertly doctored and slipped back onto UK record-store shelves. The cover seen here keeps Hilton's glossy publicity photo and the "PARIS" branding intact, but Banksy altered the packaging and replaced the music inside with his own remixed tracks and slogans; the front-cover sticker mockingly promises songs titled "Why Am I Famous?", "What Have I Done?" and "What Am I For?". It is one of his best-known interventionist objects and a centerpiece of his Royalty & Celebrity / Capitalism & Consumerism work from the Stencil Boom Era.
Collector notes: Edition label was not stated, and total quantity was not documented in the saved record. Edition-specific signature, numbering, and stamp details were not stated in the saved release record. Verify signing and numbering against a documented example of this edition.
Why It Matters
The piece is a pure act of culture-jamming: rather than make an image about celebrity vacuity, Banksy hijacked an actual mass-market product and turned the music industry's own distribution against it. In 2006 he reportedly planted around 500 doctored copies in major UK chain stores, the discs swapped for his own mashups and the artwork retitled to ask why this person is famous at all. It crystallizes his anti-consumerist, anti-celebrity stance into a single found object — a piece of guerrilla art that existed inside the commercial machine it critiques, blurring the line between prank, protest, and conceptual readymade in the lineage of Duchamp and the Situationists.
Collector Perspective
This is a manufactured, intervened object rather than a hand-pulled print, and almost all surviving examples are unsigned, so condition and completeness drive value: collectors want the doctored sleeve, the altered booklet/inlay, and ideally the swapped disc all present. It carries no formal Pictures on Walls edition number — copies entered the world by being smuggled onto shop shelves, not sold through a publisher — which makes provenance and authenticity the key variables and a point of buyer caution given how easily a standard retail CD could be confused with the real intervention. Comparable unsigned examples have changed hands in the high-hundreds of dollars, with the strongest premiums going to complete, well-documented copies; it is a recognizable, liquid Banksy name-piece but sits well below his major signed screenprints in price.
Historical Context
Released commercially in 2006 as Paris Hilton's debut album "Paris," the record became Banksy's target the same year, at the height of the mid-2000s tabloid-celebrity boom and his own Stencil Boom Era prominence. Working with producer Danger Mouse on the remixed audio, Banksy covertly substituted his version in roughly 500 copies across UK HMV and Virgin/Woolworths-type stores, the sleeves re-captioned with rhetorical questions about fame. It belongs to the same provocateur streak as his other stunts of the period — placing unauthorized works in museums and staging interventions — and predates later set-pieces like Gross Domestic Product, where he again weaponized retail and product packaging as the medium.
Documented Release Details
- Object type
- Editioned print or object
- Release date
- 2006
- Release-date note
- Catalog-listed release year from the saved secondary record; primary release-page confirmation remains pending.
- Medium and materials
- Medium and materials were not documented in the saved record.
- Edition details
- Edition label was not stated, and total quantity was not documented in the saved record.
- Signature and marks
- Edition-specific signature, numbering, and stamp details were not stated in the saved release record. Verify signing and numbering against a documented example of this edition.
Documented History and Meaning
History note: This page treats Banksy's broader career as background context, not proof that this specific edition belongs to any single exhibition or event. Release-level facts here come from a saved secondary catalog record.
Meaning / interpretation: Read as documented context rather than stated intent: Released commercially in 2006 as Paris Hilton's debut album "Paris," the record became Banksy's target the same year, at the height of the mid-2000s tabloid-celebrity boom and his own Stencil Boom Era prominence. This is an interpretive reading of the release context, not a statement of the artist's intent for this specific work. This interpretive note follows the cited artist or publisher context.
Release context: The saved catalog lists 2006.
Authentication, Presentation and Provenance
- Original presentation
- Original packaging or presentation was not documented in the release sources reviewed.
- Authentication note
- Compare the support, dimensions, edition number, and signature against a documented example of this edition. Gauntlet Gallery does not authenticate works purchased from third parties.
- Provenance note
- Edition origin is attributed in the saved record to the release source named in the saved record. That does not establish the ownership history of an individual copy: retain the original invoice, reseller or gallery paperwork, labels, correspondence, and condition photographs.
Sources and Verification
Verification status: Secondary catalog snapshot; artist-level context added
- Banksy — Wikipedia · reference encyclopedia · Accessed 2026-07-13 · General artist-level biographical and career reference.
- Banksy (Q133600) — Wikidata · reference knowledge base · Accessed 2026-07-13 · Structured identifier used for the artist across catalog metadata.
FAQ
What is this piece?
It is a real copy of Paris Hilton's 2006 debut album 'Paris' that Banksy secretly altered — re-captioning the cover with mocking song titles like 'Why Am I Famous?' and replacing the music inside — then planted back onto UK store shelves as a guerrilla artwork.
Is it signed?
No. These doctored CDs are unsigned, mass-distributed objects; they were never hand-signed or numbered, so authenticity and completeness matter far more than a signature.
What is the edition size?
There is no formal published edition. Banksy is reported to have placed around 500 altered copies into UK shops in 2006, but the exact number is unverified and unconfirmed here.
What medium is it?
It is an intervened readymade object — a commercially manufactured CD whose printed sleeve, booklet, and disc Banksy modified — rather than a screenprint or lithograph.
Who is Banksy?
Banksy is an anonymous England-based street artist who emerged from Bristol in the early 1990s, known for fast stencil work, dark political humour, and stunts that turn consumer culture against itself — of which the doctored Paris Hilton CD is a prime example.
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