Banksy – sly prankster

Early in the morning a dreary postman, carrying a fresh issue of The Sun, discovered two kissing cops in the lane. They were drawn, of course, but so touching. Literally within a few hours all the London newspapers’ workers came to the god-forgotten district. And the following day the same postman carried The Sun with an editorial: The London police are offended by the new trick of the famous artist Banksy.
The work, most likely, would be destroyed by the officials. However, Banksy’s works often die simply because of bad weather, due to municipal repair or from the hands of vandals who either hate Banksy or are just too stupid to understand the meaning of his graffiti. But until the moment when the new creation disappears, it will be replicated 100 times and fulfill its task: it will convey the opinion of the artist to a million of his fans.
This happens every time when the mysterious man wants to speak out. Popular editions – from Vogue to Esquire – have hunted for Banksy for several years, but the cunning prankster has never been caught. He prefers to talk to the world through drawings. Moreover, his creativity is against the law. Nevertheless, with the help of drawings Banksy says a lot. And the drawing is even better than the interview.

Perhaps it is worth noting that everything that is known about Banksy is known from someone’s words. It is commonly believed that this guy’s name is Robert Banks, but a couple of years ago the British newspaper Daily Mail announced that Banksy is Mr. Robin Gunningham. The photo was also in the article, allegedly recognized by Banksy’s countrymen in Bristol. None of the people, somehow connected with Banksy – gallery owners, agents and so on, did not confirm the information. The mystery remained unsolved. According to another version, Banksy is Robert Del Naja, a British musician (Massive Attack group), a singer and a graffiti artist.
It turns out that the more mysterious and at the same time popular the street graffiti artist is, the more the art dealers earn on his works. But there is a question: is he a real man?
His first drawings appeared on the streets in the 1990s. He uses stencil prepared in advance. Banksy draws not only on the walls, but also simply on paper. He paints very well and his works are sold at auctions for a lot of money. In 2006, singer Christina Aguilera bought Banksy’s work Queen Victoria as a Lesbian and two of his prints.
Once the artist was able to hang his works in the New York museums. It seems that Banksy commented on his trick: “My works are good enough for the museum, why should I wait?”
Now his graffiti can be seen in the London and Bristol zoos, the Metropolitan Museum, the New York Museum of Modern History, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Tate Gallery in London.
Sometimes Banksy organizes spectacular performances. One of the most famous, called Not Quite Legal, was held in Los Angeles. In the elegantly arranged room there was an elephant painted as the wallpaper. At the entrance guests, among whom there were Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, received cards with the words “There is an elephant in the room. There are problems that we do not talk about.” According to observers, Banksy had in mind the problem of poverty.

Astonishing picture

In June 2013, graffiti Slave Labour painted by Banksy in May 2012 was sold at a private auction for more than £ 750,000 (about $ 1.1 million).
By the way, in 2013, Banksy devoted his work P183 R.I.P. to the memory of the deceased Russian street artist Pasha 183.
The record price for his works was established in February 2008: the work Pest Control was sold at an auction for $ 1.9 million.
On October 12, 2013 Banksy arranged a “secret” sale of his works near the Central Park in New York. Passers-by could buy any picture for only $ 60 and they simply did not suspect that those works were original, and the real price of each of them was not less than 30 thousand dollars.