Guerrilla 'Art' Gone

You may have missed it while you were wandering through that art museum. This week, a 25-feet long spray-painted mural by Robert Banksy -- "one of Banksy's early pieces," we are told -- was apparently destroyed when city workmen in Bristol, England, painted over it with thick paint. According to the BBC, the workmen were dispatched to "tackle graffiti adjacent to the Banksy work, but wrongly targeted the piece itself."

It's not the first time Banksy's so-called "guerrilla" art has been vandalized. Earlier this month, the BBC also reported , "a London council has admitted street cleaners accidentally washed off two Banksy murals, including one of a girl in a frilly dress wearing a gas mask, from the side of a building."

London and Bristol councilmen claim to be scandalized at the losses. In recent years, more portable Banksy works have escalated in price. Last year, Sotheby's sold a Banksy sketch of "the Mona Lisa... spray-painted green and with paint dripping from her eyes," for more than $218,000. And, a Banksy silk screen of Kate Moss in the manner of Andy Warhol sold for nearly $115,000.

Apparently, the Bristol and London pols are worried someone will think they've lost valuable city property when their Banksy murals -- spray-painted on the sides of buildings -- bit the dust. It's difficult to see how the city has lost any value -- unless the politicians really don't mean it when they say city policy is "not to remove murals."

It's so hard to believe politicians. Three years ago Banksy "covertly cemented" a 20-foot high, 3 ton statue of Dame Justice "with US dollar bills stuffed into her garter" into Clerkenwell square in London. Reportedly, the city fathers removed it by crane two days later.

No one seems to know where it is today. Whadda ya bet it shows up at auction -- sooner, rather than later?

Banksy himself presumably might have approved the obliteration of his early work. After the recent Sotheby's auction where price records were set, Banksy's website "featured a sketch of an auction room with a message on a canvas saying: "I can't believe you morons actually buy this shit."

Anyway, why buy a Banksy when he invites you to have one for free from his web site? Be sure to follow the instuctions:

"Prints look best when done on gloss paper using the company printer ink when everyone else is at lunch."