Summary
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.
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.
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.
About the Artist
Banksy is an anonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose identity remains officially unconfirmed. Emerging from the Bristol underground scene in the early 1990s, he developed a fast, stencil-based technique for working in public space, pairing dark humour with anti-war, anti-capitalist and anti-establishment messages. Recurring motifs include rats, monkeys, riot police, and children with balloons or weapons. Many of his prints were published through Pictures on Walls and rank among the most heavily traded in the secondary market, while stunts such as the self-shredding Girl with Balloon, the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem and the Gross Domestic Product homeware line have made him one of the most recognised artists in the world.
Collecting Banksy at Gauntlet Gallery
Where can I buy authentic Banksy prints?
Gauntlet Gallery offers an extensive, authenticated inventory of Banksy prints and contemporary editions, with new drops added regularly. Browse the current collection at gauntlet.gallery.
How does Gauntlet Gallery ensure authenticity?
Gauntlet Gallery is built on curation, authenticity and transparency — every work is vetted and its provenance, edition details and condition are disclosed up front.
Does Gauntlet Gallery add new Banksy prints?
Yes. New drops are released regularly across Banksy and other leading artists; see gauntlet.gallery for the latest inventory.