When Morah and I visited her dad in L.A. this past summer, we bought this really cool rat painting, which we were told was painted by “a well-known local artist named G.M. Bis.”

Recently, Phoenix came over to our house, pointed at the painting and said, “That’s a Banksy!” Sure enough, here’s the original from Banksy’s website:

I decided to try to find more information about G.M. Bis, but the Internet yielded no clues. For such a “well-known” artist, why isn’t there any information available about him/her online? In fact, the only mentions I could find of G.M. Bis are on the website of the store from which I purchased the painting (along with a few other Banksy ripoffs). It’s all very suspicious, to say the least, and I’m starting to suspect that G.M. Bis may actually be the owner of the store (or a friend of relative of the owner). That’s pure speculation, of course, but like I said, it’s pretty suspicious.

I love Banksy’s work, so it’s no wonder I was attracted to the piece, but I had I known at the time that it’s a ripoff, I wouldn’t have bought it (in fact, I probably would have called out the owner right there in the store).