Banksy's NYC street art: Trashed or very quickly treasured
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The 24th piece in Banksy's monthlong street art residency in New York City is in the Manhattan neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, on the garage door of Larry Flint's infamous strip joint: The Hustler Club.
The famously anonymous British graffiti artist stenciled a man holding a bouquet of flowers.
"Waiting in vain... at the door of the club," reads the text accompanying photos of the stencil posted on Banksy's website.
Every day this month, Banksy has been unveiling new works of art around New York. The works are then announced on his website and posted to Instagram. Many of the surprise exhibits follow his signature street-art style: stencils spray-painted on streets, walls of buildings and under bridges.
Others include an animated YouTube video showing what appears to be footage of jihadist militants shooting down an animated Dumbo the Elephant and traveling installations, including a slaughterhouse delivery truck full of stuffed animals touring the city. Also produced are performance art pieces such as a dirt-smeared boy shining the shoes of a life-sized statue of Ronald McDonald.
Many of Banksy's pieces in The Big Apple don't last long after they are located, either defaced by local graffiti artists who don't like an outsider on their turf, or relocated and preserved to be sold to galleries and collectors by whomever owns the property Banksy happened to choose as his canvas.
On Tuesday, Banksy created a 1/36 scale replica of the Great Sphinx of Giza made from smashed cinder blocks. A video posted to YouTube shows a team of men loading it into a truck, and the New York Post reported the owner of a nearby business moved the sculpture in response to a top-dollar bid to purchase the piece.
Fans of the mysterious graffiti artist worried for him Wednesday, when a sign posted on his website reading only, "Today's art has been canceled due to police activity."
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