From Jason Z:

It was used during Mr.Brainwash' first solo art exhibition: "Life is beautiful" which took place at Former CBS Studios located at: 6121 W Sunset Blvd @ El Centro.

The Stormtrooper is not an original work, it was not hand sprayed or hand "stencilled". It is just a printed cardboard "standee" and he printed about 35 of them, most where taken or given away and Thierry is always happy to sign posters, props and promo material. That's what this is, it's just a cardboard standee that was signed by Thierry that were not hard to get; it was more of a first come serve sort of thing. If you asked or spoke up before someone else you got to take home a prize piece from the exhibition.

He also did this during many other exhibitions like the one he held in the meat packing district of NYC where a large number of posters (offsets) were printed as well as postcards depicting his work, again all for the taking for free and he would gladly sign them if asked. If you were willing to wait in line, he had a basement where attendees could literally spray paint and take small cans of paint and paint the whole basement at no cost other than to be a mess covered in spray paint and he signed many of these spray cans and paint cans which also saw their way to ebay over time.

This Stormtrooper isn't worth the cardboard it's printed on, its ephemera at best and wasn't meant to be saved or utilized as "original art". It was a temporary piece like a flyer at a rock club. it's worth what someone is willing to pay, but to the dismay of the art world it holds little to no value other than aesthetic value. No auction house would ever put this up for sale. Although it is clearly Mr. Brainwash, it was Roger Gastman and Brainwash's team who put these pieces and themes together for the outrageous show.

Auctions like these are a sad and unsavory way to sway people who don't know better or sometimes its even the person selling who may think they have something extraordinary and rare but is worthless just because of what it is tied to and we see this all the time in the vintage collecting community from people whom lack knowledge or what is actually valuable and what isn't, Mr brainswash has a healthy sales record on the secondary market but this piece just does not belong in that category at best I'd pay $100 plus shipping.

Thanks - J

Thanks for your insight on this Jason. As always, stories like this are meant to illustrate that there are more collecting options than little plastic men, and information like this is always welcome!