Topic: ART - on October 6, 2013 at 5:59:00 PM CEST
Banksy makes a splash in New York – but what will become of the murals?
He is the anonymous street art vigilante who uses the nondescript walls of cities to stage million-dollar exhibitions. In many places around the world, Banksy's graffiti art, with its strong political motifs, has become a cultural symbol and a community treasure. This month he is in New York, for what is expected to be a month-long residency featuring several new projects.
However, with great artistic acclaim and value comes a surge in commercialization. Many of Banksy's murals – prized greatly by art fans but even more so by private property owners – have been displaced and auctioned. In Los Angeles in August, a Banksy Flower Girl piece was removed from a gas station and put up for auction. The starting bid was $300,000. In February, a piece entitled Slave Labour disappeared under mysterious circumstances from a North London Poundland store, only to turn up in a Miami auction later that month, with an asking price of $700,000.
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