A section of a Brooklyn wall that was decorated with a heart-shaped balloon tied around its neck by artist Banksy is being removed after more than a decade in storage.
The remaining wall, titled “The Battle to Survive a Broken Heart,” will go up for auction on May 21 at Guernsey's New York auction.
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the American Heart Association.
When a mysterious street artist spray-painted a wall, the nondescript brick building instantly became a place for art and the scene of an amazing graffiti battle.
Almost immediately after Banksy unveiled his work in 2013, an anonymous tagger unceremoniously approached him and spray-painted the words “Omar New York” in red paint next to the balloon, shocking passersby.
A few days later, someone stenciled the words “it's a little girl” in white and pink next to Omar's tag, then added a seemingly ironic phrase in black: “I remember my first tag.” Some speculate that it may have been Banksy himself, who secretly returned to the site to add a response.
However, the fight against graffiti did not end there.
Another tagger also tried to leave his mark, but was stopped by security guards.
Today, the inscription “SHAN” is still visible, written in light purple paint.
Maria Georgiadis, whose family owned the now-demolished warehouse and eventually removed part of the wall to preserve the artwork, says graffiti like this is common in New York.
“It feels like there's a real war going on,” she said recently. “They're literally fighting over the wall.”
Ms. Georgiadis, a teacher in Brooklyn, said the sale was a bittersweet experience for her.
Her father, Vassilios Georgiadis, ran his roofing and asbestos removal company out of a warehouse decorated with a hot air balloon.
He passed away four years ago at the age of 67 from a heart attack, so a portion of the proceeds from the sale will be donated to the American Heart Association.
“It means a lot to us because he loved this piece and he was full of love,” Ms. Georgiadis said during a recent visit to the art warehouse where the work has been stored for more than a decade.
“It's like a bandaged heart. We all have love, but we all go through hard times, and we just put a little band-aid on it and move on, right? That's how I feel about it.”
The wall, weighing almost four tons and standing six feet tall, is one of many guerrilla works the notoriously secretive British artist created during his New York residency in 2013.
During this period, Banksy announced his works by posting photographs and audio recordings, partly recorded in a squeaky, helium-fueled voice, on his website.
Guernsey auction house president Arlan Ettinger said it was impossible to say for sure because Banksy works underground.
However, he noted that the careful screen printing and wording “strongly suggest that this was Banksy's gentle way of putting another artist in his place.”
Ulrich Blanch, an art history professor at Heidelberg University in Germany, described the work as a “very well-executed” stencil, notable in particular for Banksy's decision to place it in Brooklyn's Red Hook waterfront neighborhood.
“It was not easy to get to this part of New York at the time,” he wrote in an email.
“Banksy wanted people to visit places in New York they had never seen and fall in love with them.”
However, Mr Blanche expressed doubt that the additional stencil text was indeed the work of Banksy, noting that the choice of words and design appeared to
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
