He took a risk. Or he has no idea who Banksy is. Or he thought $60 for a Banksy wasn’t that bad. Or he thought they were real. Or he knew about the whole thing all along. Either way, a man from Chicago bought four Banksy canvases – signed by the artist himself – for the bargain total of $240.

Banksy Amy WinehouseBanksy's Amy Winehouse

Citing a need for something, anything, on the walls of his new New York pad, ‘the man from Chicago’ is now in possession of art worth a hell-of-a-lot more than $240. In fact, he could have about $60k worth of culture on his hands. Or on his walls.

What are you going to do now Chicago man? Bask in the jealousy of hundreds of New Yorkers that walked by the stall without batting an eyelid, and the hundreds of thousands more reading about it? Sell it? We really want to know.

Emily Christensen-Flowers of NBC News is one of those frustrated people. She strolled past the sale, announcing to her out-of-town friends that the old guy on the stall was flogging fakes. "Look at this guy," she said, ‘ with a note of derision: "Knocking off Banksy."

“This time, however, the joke was on me and countless other New Yorkers and tourists who marched past the unassuming table with the sign "Spray Art." Because, as I found out when I got to work on Monday and read a story about Banksy's weekend exploits, every single canvas on that table was the genuine article — and signed, to boot,” she explained.

Banksy PolicemanBanksy's iconic Policeman

A woman from New Zealand bought two of the small canvasses for $120 while another woman bought a pair for her young children, having haggled the vendor down to $60, which was half-price. By the time Banksy put the scoop up on his website, the game was up. "Please note: This was a one off," he wrote. "The stall will not be there again today".