Banksy's street art isn't the only stuff that gets stolen. . .
Banksy's massive campaign in LA has brought a lot of exposure to the world of street art. Unfortunately, the new found popularity has also brought some bad elements to the street art game.
We caught these two street art thieves raiding this box on Melrose. Things got really heated when we found no less than 6 pieces torn off the box and clumped on the ground.
This is not art collecting, this is just a massive buff.
We have said many times that we have no problem collecting art from the streets. And to have a piece collected, is, in our opinion, one of the highest compliments a street artist can get.
There is, however, a big difference between collecting a piece, or even pieces of art, and wholesale robbery. It was clear these people had no respect or appreciation for any of these pieces as actual 'art'. They only saw the dollar signs. Actions like this are the street equivalent of strip mining because it destroys the environment.
These two admitted at first that they were going to sell the pieces on ebay, and then when we told them that we were going to post these pics on the blog they got flustered and tried coming up with every excuse, and insult in the book.
We learned long ago not to spend time arguing with fools, because from a distance other people can't tell who's who.
But we lost our own temper when we discovered that these two twerps are friends with Jonny 'No' Style. Jonny No Style made a name for himself when he tried buffing a fresh wall from LA's street and graffiti artists while the paint was still wet, replacing it with a lame mural in its place. Jonny said that he was 'saving the streets from trash', which is apparently how he views street artists. And it is the ultimate irony that these art-stealing-assholes hang out with that Jonny-asshole, and together they have no respect for street art or the scene yet they do, however, show up like vultures to try and cash in on the hard work that these street artists have put in.
There is a dismal end to the story. After we yelled back and forth the two thieves left. But since they weren't familiar with street art or the materials, when they had ripped the pieces off the box they dropped the pasters in a clump next to the box. The thing is, once you get a wet wheat paste off the box, you've got to keep it straight or it will clump. And since it is still wet and there is still glue on it, once it clumps together, it is nearly impossible to untangle without tearing. The assholes realized this after the damage had been done, and when they left, the massacred box was laid bare, and all the trashed pieces were left lying on the ground, ruined.
Too bad you can't see it, but the art that was on this box before being trashed came from Armo, Alec Monopoly, low_d, Leba, Free Humanity, and Varp.
If anyone knows these fools or Jonny, make sure to deride them and give them a big "Fuck You!" from MELROSEandFAIRFAX. We gave them plenty in person, but assholes like this need to keep hearing it every so often.
^This pic was snapped when we first walked up and asked him what they were doing. He had just told us that these were worth a lot of money, and he is turning to smile and say "Have you heard of Banksy?" . You can almost see the dollar signs in his eyes.
