One graffitist defaced Banksy’s art — and two more came along and undid the damage.
Stealth graffiti artist Banksy on Tuesday unveiled his latest New York installment on the corner of Jay and Staple streets in Tribeca — a stencil of the doomed Twin Towers with a bright-orange chrysanthemum exploding from one building.
Sometime later, a graffiti vandal spray-painted in pink the words “Inside job,’’ with an arrow pointing to the towers.
By nightfall, another pair of graffitists had undone the damage, covering the offending two words with tan paint, to match the stone wall.
“There’s no need for f–king politics,” one explained (if, in fact, that was an explanation).
A nearly identical stencil, presumably by Banksy, also turned up Monday night on a wall near the Brooklyn Promenade, near where thousands of New Yorkers watched the Trade Center come down Sept. 11.
That artwork, spotted by Gothamist.com, seemed to be unfinished — it was missing the flower and spires on the towers —, prompting speculation that Banksy might have abruptly abandoned the piece.
Most of Banksy’s works have been tagged, painted over or ruined by fellow vandals within hours.
NYPD sources said Tuesday they are actively looking for Banksy, but admitted the hunt is difficult because he has never been positively identified publicly.
“It’s kind of hard, because nobody knows what he looks like,” a law-enforcement source said of the famous British wall scribbler.
“Any interviews he does, his face is always covered.”