Do they realize how famous and beloved that person will be if they are identified?
Could everyone in London just suddenly adopt a fashion trend of wearing V for Vendetta masks?
… Or is that already illegal?
The UK, in collaboration with the US, has been a surveillance state for over 15 years. Now is becoming an authoritarian one too.
So they destroyed a priceless artwork, and are essentially planning to kill graffiti Santa next.
I wonder who’s ordering this, and if they’re aware it will not help the public opinion problem they’re having.
Well Labour is just a different flavour of the Conservative Party. So it does track.
Ah yes, going after world renowned artist for graffiti because he made them feel bad. Truth speaking to power will always be unpopular with those in power.
I mean tbh they go after all the world renowned graffiti artists, as by nature graffiti is illegal. There are plenty muralists that aren’t sought after by the authorities because they only paint legal (…under that name anyway…) but by definition graffiti is a crime.
He’s not because people not into graff know him so if he writes on your building it’s worth money, yaaay. Even though those who know graff know him as a biter, for his copying of Blek Le Rat.
I mean tbh they go after all the world renowned graffiti artists
If it were some random dude writing some random letters, they probably would put in a lot of effort though; because the effort isn’t because of material damage.
Yeah, JA XTC, MQ, Kez 5 (dead), Semz, Zexor (dead), Risk, Cost & Revs, Kuma, Wanto, Pixote, Earsnot, Seen, etc on and on, all those dudes are still or were* (*either caught and now paint that name legally or died) being actively hunted by the cops specifically because of the material damage. I wouldn’t know from experience or anything I’ve never written on anything and you have no proof to the contrary.
Banksy isn’t sought for criminal charges, he’s sought because he’s “famous.” I’m sure he would face charges because he is at least doing his street art illegally, but it’s absolutely not the same treatment someone like Jase or Ich would get bombing reefers, much less someone like MQ.
In conclusion, Team Robbo FTW fuck that biter.
Banksy is as much a person as Nicolas Bourbaki was. Although unlike Bourbaki, there is allegedly one guy who is kind of the main guy, but if that one guy goes to prison, I’m fairly certain Bansky artworks will continue to appear.
In fact I’d put money on the fact that one would appear in a prominent place soon after.
And if the establishment somehow manage to round up every single person associated with Banksy and manage to get something to stick to every single one of them, which I strongly doubt is possible, the rise in wannabe Banksy groups doing the same thing won’t be far off.
The artwork is almost always made with stencils and spray paints. Stencils can be prepared well in advance. A trained group could have one of these up in under a couple of minutes.
If I was Banksy - or one of them - I would almost certainly have distributed my art to trusted individuals for the event of my incarceration and beyond.
In fact I’d put money on the fact that one would appear in a prominent place soon after.
I mean, if it’s multiple people and the ones not incarcerated don’t immediately drop more art, I’d be disappointed.
I wonder how close they could get to putting one on the jail.
It means Banksy, who has remained anonymous for more than 25 years, could finally be unmasked as he would be required to publicly disclose his name if brought to court.
Gonna be hard to bring them to court if you don’t even know their name, isn’t it?
Banksy is a company at this point. They can find them if they want to. It’s not like they’ve never exchanged money for thier work before.
I’m pretty sure there’s plenty of people out there who know exactly who Banksy is. It’ll be like with The Stig, all the journalists knew who he was but the mystery was more interesting and sold more papers.
With the London surveillance apparatus, I bet they could figure out who Banksy is. It’d be an insane waste of time and resources, but I bet they could.
i don’t think it’d be that many resources. that’s why they put up the surveillance in the first place.
The fact that they’re going to all this trouble over this image proves the point the image was making better than anything else possibly could have.
If artwork is a threat to your system…
Streisand Effect to the max.
Exactly and the image is already out on the internet now.
Link?
This was the best I could find without people in it when it first went up:
Before and after they tried to remove it only to further bolster the message
Honestly, they inadvertently made it better, and certainly made it more poignant
It’s almost like it was Bansky’s plan all along because the removed artwork looks just as powerful as the full artwork.
Do you think it was intentional with the choice of paint, or did the person removing it intentionally scrub just the silhouette?
but, BUT, MUH LAW AND ORDER
Could always make them waste even more resources by adding noise to what little data they might have.
I’mSpartacusBanksy!I’M BANKSY!
I’m Banksy and so is my wife!
I saw my dog with a stencil yesterday. Maybe he’s Banksy.
Does he still install them himself? Isn’t it likely he sent someone to do it for him?
Couldn’t tell ya, but that’s certainly plausible.
They have done both.
Finally all that money they’re giving to antichrist speaker Peter Thiel going to good use
Seems like an opportunity for a bunch of street artists to show up at court and pull an “I’m Spartacus”.
I’ve long heard that his identity is an open secret and a lot of people know his actual identity. Solid chance the UK government already knows who he is.
Them silently knowing his identity is not the same as them proving his identity in court though.
Rumors (which are even on Wikipedia) say it’s Robert Del Naja from Massive Attack, who started as a graffiti artist. Bansky told interviewers that he was inspired by Del Naja.
If I was trying to keep my identity a secret, I wouldn’t say I was inspired by myself.
And not even in reverse-psychology way, because then the interviewer would probably look up Del Naja and an immediately make the connection.
Imagine if it isn’t Del Naja, yet everytime he travels somewhere someone puts up a Banksy near you. I’d feel so powerful and in control of that happened to me all the time.
He has sold some of his work at auction, I’m guessing they didn’t write a check to “Banksy”.
Banksy has also been to court before, fully represented by his lawyer. The odds of them not knowing precisely who he is are fairly low, I believe.
probably wrote the cheque to a shell company
There’s two companies associated with the name, at least. This is from memory, so grain of salt, but i believe there’s a company specifically to get a hold of the artist(s). And one that sells the prints and stuff.
The article says it could result in a fine that’s based on the value of the damage. You’d think having a famous artist’s work would increase the value of the building.
Interesting. “The value of the damage.” I’d say it’s pretty likely the Banksy worked increased the value of the wall, if not the whole property. So is that negative damage? The people who decreased the value where those who tried to clean off the artwork.
How much does it cost to hire someone to pressure wash a wall for an hour in the UK?
But no, that’s an excellent point, removing the art work would actually be more damaging
would be funny if courts did agree it was net increase to value if they didnt destroy it
So really they devalued public property by destroying his artwork. I say bring the State up on charges.
Even funnier would be if they then put the cleaners in jail instead.
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
Careful what you wish for. I’m not disagreeing, but when the powerful are fearful, it will get worse before it gets better. Could be a whole lot worse.
Pretty sure that’s what’s happening now with all the online safety act chat control protesters are actually terrorists stuff
Things are already getting worse at a rapid clip.
Yup. It’s a one way trip to fascist dystopia until the oligarchs feel they might genuinely face the old French treatment.
Some prophecies are self fulfilling. Stalin’s paranoia didn’t kill him maybe, but it didn’t exactly save him.
Something about the parallel of Capitalism and Fascism eating themselves
Oh no! That is so scary. I hope that whoever it is doesn’t have decades of experience in working and traveling anonymously around the world while performing illegal acts of guerilla artwork while evading both the legal authorities and an adoring public fanbase!
Could have avoided the higher criminal charges by painting a building across the street, but this does demonstrate the insecurity of authority.
Hmm it’s almost like choosing a persona isn’t just about sounding cool.
Damage is all of their own doing. Every move they make just damages them more.
