Thursday, February 17, 2011

Banksy Crayon Soldier Buffed!


Well, not entirely, but parts of the wall were buffed off by the cleaning squad before any pics were released, even our first jump exclusives or Lauren Conrad's early morning tweeted pic.

MELROSEandFAIRFAX has just received an exclusive set of pictures that show the full Banksy piece before it was buffed.

As far as we know, these are the only full pics of the original piece anywhere in the world. Click the jump below for the full story and pics.


^This is the pic that Lauren Conrad tweeted. As you can see, the blue line of the butterfly has been buffed off the bottom right corner of the 'No Parking' sign.

But these new pics capture that corner untouched, as well as a pink butterfly that was originally on the door to the left but then got buffed off.

These minor touches really bring the piece together and show how the street art goes outside of the lines and borders.

An employee at the Urban Outfitters where this was done provided the pics. He and his fellow employees are the only ones to see it before the parts got buffed. There are a lot of conspiracy theories swirling about whether Banksy placed this piece on the Urban Outfitters as a reward for selling the most copies of his book 'Wall and Piece', but nothing underhanded is happening here. He told us, "As an artist myself, I only want the utmost preservation for any artwork, especially of this magnitude."

Thanks again for the pics. Hope the piece doesn't get fully buffed.



9 comments:

  1. those pics really do look different. crazy how that works

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  2. I don't get it??
    You mean the little piece of butterfly that was over the No Parking sign??

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  3. this whole thing might be buffed according to laist.... http://laist.com/2011/02/17/urban_outfitters_wants_to_paint_ove.php

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  4. yeah what are you talking about ? I have full pics of the original. and many people who came by the day after do too> lets do lunch

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  5. I think I saw another Banksy last night on Beverly Blvd and La Brea. It's one of his monkeys. But I'm not sure if it's an impostor or not.

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  6. That monkey piece at Beverly & La Brea has been there for months. At the gas station on that corner, there is a vinyl cover over a south facing wall that had or maybe even has a Bansky piece on it from a few years ago. There were a few other Banksy pieces along that stretch of Beverly 2 years ago, but have since been buffed.

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  7. update: http://laist.com/2011/02/18/urban_outfitters_responds_to_cries.php

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  8. @anonymous. the 3 banksy pieces along beverly that are "covered up" are still there. just hidden. the "caveman" by the beverly cinema is under a piece of wood that has been painted over red. the "girl watering attenna" and "surveillance cam girl" by the gas station has been just covered up by the gas station. i do not know why they did that. the "rat" and "security guard" have been cut out. the only remaining viewable banksy left from his last visit in 2008 is the "parking" one dtla

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  9. @ Tam: The two girls at the gas station are covered up by the gas station because they understand the value of these pieces and they are trying to prevent other people from coming to steal or deface them.

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