Police Confiscate Banksy Balloons and Say They’re Not Art

 

Banksy! is still in police custody — that is, the balloons that spell the British street artist’s name, as well as an exclamation point, are. And they may never get out.

 

Confiscated by the police from would-be thieves, the inflatable letters, which were Banksy’s parting gift to New York after a monthlong “residency,” have been impounded by the New York Police Department’s property clerk division.

 

The letters’ estimated value, according to a gallery owner who specializes in Banksy’s work, is between $200,000 and $300,000. But in the view of the Police Department, which has categorized the balloons as “arrest evidence,” they are somewhat less rarefied, possibly to their peril.

 

“I don’t have it as art on the invoice,” said Deputy Chief Jack J. Trabitz, the commanding officer of the property clerk division, which maintains facilities around the city for evidence storage. “We have it as a balloon.”

 

The categorization of mere balloonhood may mean the work will be discarded. To be saved, the piece must be claimed, and if it is not, it could be auctioned should the department deem it valuable. Neither has happened.

 

The letters were first spotted floating on the side of a building in Long Island City, Queens, at dawn on Oct. 31, the last day of Banksy’s freewheeling New York project, during which he adorned all five boroughs with his infamous street art. Each piece was revealed online, sending giddy crowds on a hunt to find it, before it was stolen, tagged, removed or defaced.

 

The balloons overlooked the Long Island Expressway and remained in place until midday, when several men scaled ladders to pull them down. Police officers responding to reports of a large crowd arrested three men for trespassing and escorted the balloons into the back of a police van.

 

Jimmy Chiang, 31, David Aguilar, 25, and Ronald Galarza, 24, were arrested on charges of criminal trespassing, and Mr. Chiang was also charged with criminal mischief, a police spokesman said. The men either could not be reached or declined to comment, though in a video of the arrest one of them said the plan was to put the balloons up “in a museum.”

 

Click here to read the full article.