OT: Amusing Article {pics on site}
stoney
Smuggler hauls art ... into the museum
British artist's works hung for months in N.Y. venues
Updated: 1:35 p.m. ET March 25, 2005
NEW YORK - Many a visitor to New York’s Museum of Modern Art has
probably thought, “I could do that.”
A British graffiti artist who goes by the name “Banksy” went one step
further, by smuggling in his own picture of a soup can and hanging it
on a wall, where it stayed for more than three days earlier this month
before anybody noticed.
The prank was part of a coordinated plan to infiltrate four of New
York’s top museums on a single day.
The largest piece, which he smuggled into the Brooklyn Museum, was a 2
foot by 1.5 foot (61cm by 46 cm) oil painting of a colonial-era
admiral, to which the artist had added a can of spray paint in his
hand and anti-war graffiti in the background.
The other two targets were the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the
American Museum of Natural History, where he hung a glass-encased
beetle with fighter jet wings and missiles attached to its body --
another comment on war, Banksy told Reuters on Thursday.
“It was just an outsider’s view of the modern American bug, bristling
with listening devices and military hardware,” he said.
An art Web site called www.woostercollective.com has posted pictures
of the artist -- wearing an Inspector Clouseau-style overcoat, a hat
and a fake beard and nose -- hanging up his work at the four museums
and describing how he did it.
Speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location in Britain, Banksy
said he conducted all four operations on March 13, helped by
accomplices who filmed him and provided distractions where necessary.
“They staged a gay tiff (lovers’ quarrel), shouting very loudly and
obnoxiously,” said the artist, declining to give his real name or any
personal details beyond his occupation as a professional painter and
decorator.
It is not the first time he has staged such stunts. Last year he
smuggled work into the Louvre in Paris and London’s Tate, attracting
attention in the British media.
“My sister inspired me to do it. She was throwing away loads of my
pictures one day and I asked her why. She said ’It’s not like they’re
going to be hanging in the Louvre.”’
He took that as a challenge. “I thought why wait until I’m dead,” he
said.
Caught by a soup can?
His preferred creative outlet, graffiti on trains, was growing more
difficult due to greater security so he decided to branch out into
infiltrating museums. “I tend to gravitate to places with less
sophisticated security systems,” he said.
Officials at the Natural History Museum declined to comment on
security. Museum of Modern Art officials said only that the offending
picture was taken down on March 17.
It was unclear what gave the game away but Banksy’s version of Andy
Warhol’s iconic images of Campbell’s Soup Cans showed a can of Tesco
value tomato soup, a discounted brand sold by a British supermarket
chain.
“Obviously they’ve got their eye a lot more on things leaving than
things going in which works in my favor,” Banksy said. “I imagine
they’ll be doing stricter bag checks now.”
He said the painting in the Metropolitan Museum, a small portrait of a
woman wearing a gas mask, had been discovered after one day, while the
others stayed up for several days. The paintings were fixed to the
wall with extra-strong glue.
Asked how he managed to escape notice while putting them up on a busy
Sunday at the museums, he said: “They do get pretty full, but not if
you put the pictures in the boring bits.”
Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
johac
stoney <sto...@the.net> wrote:
I saw those. I like the one about the admiral and the graffiti.
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
stoney
>In article <81hc41h9piicvpi9k...@4ax.com>,
> stoney <sto...@the.net> wrote:
>
>> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7287580/
>>
>> Smuggler hauls art ... into the museum
>> British artist's works hung for months in N.Y. venues
>>
[]
>> Officials at the Natural History Museum declined to comment on
>> security. Museum of Modern Art officials said only that the offending
>> picture was taken down on March 17.
>>
>> It was unclear what gave the game away but Banksy’s version of Andy
>> Warhol’s iconic images of Campbell’s Soup Cans showed a can of Tesco
>> value tomato soup, a discounted brand sold by a British supermarket
>> chain.
>>
>> “Obviously they’ve got their eye a lot more on things leaving than
>> things going in which works in my favor,” Banksy said. “I imagine
>> they’ll be doing stricter bag checks now.”
>>
>> He said the painting in the Metropolitan Museum, a small portrait of a
>> woman wearing a gas mask, had been discovered after one day, while the
>> others stayed up for several days. The paintings were fixed to the
>> wall with extra-strong glue.
>>
>> Asked how he managed to escape notice while putting them up on a busy
>> Sunday at the museums, he said: “They do get pretty full, but not if
>> you put the pictures in the boring bits.”
>>
>> Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited
>
>I saw those. I like the one about the admiral and the graffiti.
I find it interesting what can develop from a simple comment.