[gm]

The Drinker appeared at the very top end of Shaftesbury Avenue around March 2004, sat there for a couple of weeks, and was then kidnapped.





Guardian Unlimited story about it here.

A couple of snippets for anyone who can't be bothered to read the whole thing:

Next day I receive a call. "It's Banksy here," he says. Yes, it's true the statue has gone. "We received a ransom note with pictures of the sculpture with gaffer tape over his eyes and mouth. It looked quite good, actually. And we then received a bit of him in the post. A bit of his shoulder blade, I think."

Banksy has not reported the kidnap to the police. He is not in a position to do so - as Britain's leading graffiti artist, and a celebrated vandal, he is a wanted man. But what could have led the kidnappers to steal the statue? It seems that the kidnap and accompanying manifesto are intended as a guerrilla attack on the notion of Banksy as a guerrilla artist - AK47 appear to be saying that, ultimately, Banksy's art is a commodity like anybody else's.

Banksy, it has to be said, does not sound distraught. Is he willing to pay a ransom? "It depends how much they're asking, I suppose." He pauses. "Actually, I'm quite glad to be shot of him. The thing is, I live in a flat so I've not really got space - it's three and a half tonnes, you know." Also, he says, when it comes down to it, he doesn't think the Drinker is that good. "The trouble is, I don't know much about sculpture and mistakenly thought Rodin was just famous by accident and that I'd be able to pay somebody a couple of hundred quid to do a perfect copy of the Thinker. But it turns out he's really good, and we couldn't copy it properly - it's not as easy as stencils - so it didn't quite look like we wanted."

I ask him why they are holding the Drinker hostage. "It's personal," he says. What does he mean? "Well, a mate of mine went to [Banksy's] exhibition at Christmas and wanted his signature on a piece of work, and was told he would have to pay £175 extra for it signed. Now, we love his art and stuff, but anyone who thinks their signature is worth £175 is getting up himself. He needs to get his feet back on the f**king ground."

Edit: Yay! I worked out how to do links properly

[RetroCanvas]

www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0%2C%2C1239666%2C00.html

Just a bit of info about the theft of the Drinker

[andrewd]

The Drinker spent some time on the A 40 / Harrow Road ( just below the Paddington slip road ) on the way into London. Going out under the Westway was a rather large RAT. Another huge ( 30 or 40 foot ? ) RAT now demolished was on the A4 near the SmithKlineGlaxo building coming into to London.
BANKSY seems to have gone a bit quiet over the last 18 months. Hardly any POW stuff. Hardly any London grafitti. OK there's all the LA stuff etc.
I know POW are doing the LA prints and there will be a ghetto this dec.
Wonder if Banksy still feels that he needs to bomb London etc or if he is happy to maintain his profile in other ways.

[mido]

banksy did loads of stuff this year in London- mainly large pieces. Not much of it left though - that's the problem with large, high profile pieces. they get buffed quickly.

andrewd said:

The Drinker spent some time on the A 40 / Harrow Road ( just below the Paddington slip road ) on the way into London. Going out under the Westway was a rather large RAT. Another huge ( 30 or 40 foot ? ) RAT now demolished was on the A4 near the SmithKlineGlaxo building coming into to London.
BANKSY seems to have gone a bit quiet over the last 18 months. Hardly any POW stuff. Hardly any London grafitti. OK there's all the LA stuff etc.
I know POW are doing the LA prints and there will be a ghetto this dec.
Wonder if Banksy still feels that he needs to bomb London etc or if he is happy to maintain his profile in other ways.

[hankpank]

andrewd said:

BANKSY seems to have gone a bit quiet over the last 18 months. Hardly any POW stuff. Hardly any London grafitti.

I was in London (from Sweden) for 5 days in April Banksy-hunting hem.bredband.net/b152220/banksy/ . I found a lot both new and old thanks to the google-map of Banksy graffiti. During the night he put up the phone booth at Soho Square 300 metres from where I was asleep. I heard of that when I got back home . And walking under the railway bridge over Old Street, it suddenly had "Abandon Hope" that wasn't there the day before.

• The maids
• The "What" Kid
• Works at Laz
• Six new prints from Barely Legal at Pow (soon)
• The Graffiti Removal Call...
• Paris Hilton CD
and that's in the last 6 months and in London.

• Crude Oils exhibition
• J&J, CND and Grin Reaper at POW
+ a lot of other street work
...in London the last 18 months.

...and Disneyland, streets of LA and Barely Legal.

Perspective, please.

Has Banksy ever been this productive?

[wezzley]

www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=460066&in_page_id=1770

[gbh]

dear o dear