What a delicious irony: The British graffiti artist Banksy claims the privilege to strike wherever he likes, including on property he doesn’t own. But when it’s his work up on a wall, suddenly he and his defenders go all bourgeois — backing up their property rights with plexiglass, metal door covers and security guards.
This contradiction is now in full bloom in New York City, Banksy’s latest canvas. In his book “Wall and Peace,” Banksy explained his disdain for the idea that graffiti ruins neighborhoods:
“The people who truly deface our neighborhoods are the companies that scrawl giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff. They expect us to be able to shout their messages in your face from every available surface and you’re never allowed to answer back. Well, they started the fight and the wall is the weapon of choice to hit them back.”
Well, it turns out his fellow graffiti artists in New York have turned that weapon on Banksy himself — by defacing or covering over some of his New York drawings. That led one property owner, whom he hired to display two of his works, to get a security guard to watch over them. As The Post reported, the guard explained the rules of the game to people who came out to look:
“This is a private exhibit. There is zero tolerance. If you act up, we will close the gates and that’s that.”
Yes, the owner is fully within his rights here. But we do wonder about those who hail Banksy for marking up other people’s property while deriding anyone who would do the same to his works as vandals.