Art...Or Not....

Well, it’s either art or it’s vandalism, and you’re either lucky if it happens to you or it’s a pain in the neck. And what am I talking about?

This!

Or what about this?

Those in the know—which excludes me—will know that it’s Banksy, a guy whom few people have seen but everyone seems to know about. And he’s been at it since he was in his teens in Bristol, when he was part of the “great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980’s,” according to Wikipedia. No, I have no idea what this is.

And the guy gets around—he popped up in New Orleans after Katrina, he’s been to the Middle East, and he’s now in New York City, where each day for the month of October, he’s putting up a display. Here’s today’s work, which he says was done in the middle of the night in a state “of advanced inebriation.”

For doing stuff like this, Banksy has become famous and, in the process, rich. How rich? Well, he’s estimated at about 20 million dollars. And his work, if authenticated, goes for up to a million. But there’s a problem; authentication is done by a group called The Pest Control Office, and he warns you—the process is “long and challenging.”

And quite often, he chooses not to authenticate a work. Once, in fact, well—let Forbes tell the story….

Take the water tank on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, overlooking the Pacific Coast Highway outside of LA. Thinking the old tank was abandoned, Banksy painted a caption on the side of it “This Looks A Bit Like An Elephant”, and instantly turned it into a tourist attraction and a potential money-maker for two owners of a media design firm that bought the tank from the city of LA with plans to remove and sell it. There was just one complication – the homeless man, Tachowa Covington, who had been living inside of it for seven years and suddenly had his home destroyed.

Banksy heard about the situation, and within hours had reached out to Covington, giving him enough money to get an apartment and support himself for an entire year. This was not enough for the artist. He went on to remove the water tank from his website, and refused to authenticate it for the new owners. The result? Instead of a profitable sale at auction, the tank ended up in a scrap metal yard.

Right—there’s something to like about a guy like that….

And so all of New York is busy trying to find the most recent Banksy attack before it is shown on his website. Where, by the way, you can download high definition Banksy works, so that you can spare the half million or so that you need to bleed out for an original.

Oh, and if it's your building that is chosen as the visitation site? Be prepared to hire security guards.

Now then, the question of the hour--is it art? Well, one guy has the answer, and he's the mayor of New York. Do I have to tell you what he said?

But take a look at the final photo—you decide...