The New York Post has a long look at the after-effects of Banksy’s recent appearance in New York. A spate of new Banksy works appeared in New York late this Winter and were confirmed mid-March by Banksy’s Instagram account.
The nature of street art is evanescent. First, much of the work gets tagged by other artists or painted over in other ways. That happened to a piece in Midwood even as a potential buyer negotiated with the building’s owners to acquire the work:
When Evan Franca, a restaurateur who lives in Prospect Heights, saw the images of the Midwood works on Banksy’s Instagram account, he decided to get in on the action. […]
“I really liked the [seal] piece,” Franca, 33, told The Post. “So I reached out to the owners [of the building] to let them know what they have. They told me they were demolishing the building in a couple weeks. They’re planning to build a storage facility on the property.
“I offered a low price for the artwork on the building,” he continued, hinting that it was in the $20,000 range. “They said they would have to set back their demolition schedule [for the removal] and it was not worthwhile for less than $100,000.”
Franca has not yet decided what to do. “It will cost me another 100K to get it into shape,” he said. “I spoke with an engineer and a contractor. They’d remove [the section]. Then a fine-art mover will have to transport the painting — it will weigh 2 to 3 tons — and we’ll build a steel frame around it.”
Building owners are making a fortune from Banksy’s art (NYPost)
