Thursday, March 24, 2005 Posted: 7:29 PM EST (0029 GMT)
MoMA was one of four New York museums targeted by the artist.
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 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.
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."
From CNN.com 3/24/05
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
Brilliant!
(I'm a bit saddened that they feel the need to define "tiff.")
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
btw, do you have a link?
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
Hmm. His art sounds pretty lame. No wonder he had to smuggle it in to the museum.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Ha!
Posted by Brinestone (Member # 5755) on :
That's awesome! Now, how do I slip one of my short stories into an anothology with stories by some of the greats without anyone noticing?
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
I was thinking the same thing, Brinestone!
Posted by Beren One Hand (Member # 3403) on :
Bob, do you come up with this stuff on your own, or do you get a list of stuff from a liberal think tank each day to infiltrate online communities with? Just curious, is all. I just see you starting more threads and they aren't as fun as they used to be. The fact that this one was sort of fun puts the matter into relief.
Posted by Beren One Hand (Member # 3403) on :
Uh oh. She's onto you Bob. Abort! Abort!
Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :
Uh, if by liberal think tank you mean CNN, then yes.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Mothertree, Bob is a member of Thinker's Anonymous. I was at his last intervention, so I know. No thinking for him.
[ March 24, 2005, 11:22 PM: Message edited by: Elizabeth ]
Posted by mothertree (Member # 4999) on :
I'm just skunked that you are marrying DKW instead of waiting for my husband to die of natural causes. I've been baking up a storm, it shouldn't take more than 30 years.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
quote:We wanted to release a Windows version as part of Windows 98, but sadly, Microsoft has effective building security.
Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :
I saw his can of soup on the news this morning. I thought it was great... a generic brand rather than the famous campbells.. I think it is an interesting commentary on our lives today....
hmmmm....
I just think what he's doing is neat... and I would consider it art, even if I don't agree with his politics.
It's lots of fun, actually. Posted by Myr (Member # 5956) on :
Awwwesome.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
Hi mothertree...
1) I subscribe to WashingtonPost online and CNN news alerts. They send me updates throughout the day and I get to read them in the evening and post the ones I think are interesting.
2) Just a hint, dkw doesn't say the word "liberal" like it's a disease. Posted by Book (Member # 5500) on :
That reminds me of I Heart Huckabees.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
quote: I just see you starting more threads and they aren't as fun as they used to be
Must be what happens when you get married -- start taking everything in life so serious, and pretty soon you don't even recognize it anymore when your friends are trying to tease and kid with you in threads, and think instead that they are really arguing with you...
Farmgirl
[ March 25, 2005, 11:57 AM: Message edited by: Farmgirl ]
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Again, I must bring up Thinker's Anonymous. If people just stopped thinking, it would all be so easy!
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
I'm just skunked that you are marrying DKW instead of waiting for my husband to die of natural causes. I've been baking up a storm, it shouldn't take more than 30 years.
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)