Video Shows Banksy Covertly Hauling in $420 at a Central Park Stall
The best sale this weekend was in Central Park—and most of New York missed it.
On Saturday, British street artist Banksy set
up a stall just outside the park where he sold signed canvases of his
spray-paint images for $60 each. The artist, whose past works have sold
in the hundreds of thousands, sold eight paintings for a total of $420.
Banksy,
who uses a pseudonym and hasn't revealed his identity, is used to
better prices. At a February Sotheby's auction in London, a Banksy work
sold for about $617,000; In 2008, one went for $1.87 million.
Banksy's Latest Canvas: New York City
The
artist has taken over the city in a monthlong "residency" he calls
"Better Out Than In," during which new works have cropped up in public
spaces from Midtown to Red Hook. Last week, he painted a priest on a
concrete block in Manhattan, installed a mural of galloping horses on
the Lower East Side, and sent a delivery truck full of stuffed farm
animals through the Meatpacking District.
Photographs
of the work appear on the artist's website, along with satirical "audio
guides" for some of the pieces. Fans following the project have been
spreading word through social media of new locations marked by the
artist, though some works have lasted just hours before being altered or
painted over.
On
his website, the artist posted a picture of the Central Park stall
cluttered with small black-and-white canvases and a sign that read
"Spray Art." "Yesterday I set up a stall in the park selling 100%
authentic original signed Banksy canvases. For $60 each," a caption
beneath the image explains.
A
video posted to the site shows an older man in a white cap and
sunglasses manning the stand as New Yorkers pass by. The video said that
the vendor made his first sale at 3:30 p.m., to a woman who bought two
canvases for her children—after negotiating a half-off deal. A woman
from New Zealand bought two canvases as well (at full price), and a man
from Chicago bought four. "I just need something for the walls," the
video quotes him as saying.
A
note on the site let fans know not to expect the stand again. "This was
a one off. The stall will not be there again today." By Monday, the
artist had already posted a picture of his new work, on a brick wall in
Queens. It depicts a man holding a bucket and a sponge, scrubbing off a
line in red script: "What we do in life echoes in Eternity."
A
version of this article appeared October 15, 2013, on page A25 in the
U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Banksy Pops
Up in Central Park.
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