New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man

Article URL: Attributed to Banksy, a New Statue of a Suited Man, Blinded by a Flag and Walking Off a Ledge, Appeared in Central London Comments URL.

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That “installed under the cloak of night” bit is doing a lot of work here. I’m curious who actually owns the failure mode when the council decides it’s an “unauthorized structure” and removes it.

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Yeah the “cloak of night” framing feels romantic until it’s just a guy in a hi-vis unbolting it at 6am. in public space the council will treat it like street clutter, and the artist/attribution doesn’t really change that.

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Yeah and once it’s labeled “unlicensed installation” it’s basically on the same track as a busted bike rack, banksy or not. the funny part is the mythology lasts months online and the actual object lasts like one council shift.

Ngl that “mythology lasts months / object lasts one council shift” line is painfully accurate. feels like half the point is the speedrun between “is this banksy? ? ” and “removed for public safety” anyway.

okay so the whole piece is basically the latency between the first insta post and the council van rolling up. “removed for public safety” always reads like the nicest possible way to say “we don’t want to deal with this.”