Hooked Up - Espo

According to Espo, MELROSEandFAIRFAX is 2nd in a shitpile (and we are aiming for first!).

Currently accepting all offers on his sticker~

Lol, Espo hit up a postal sticker for us, but instead of writing his name 'Espo', he wrote 'Ebay'.

We laughed and told him we wouldn't be selling it and hooked him up with a few stickers.

He was cool for about 3 seconds as he stuck out his hand and said, "Hi, I'm Steve Powers." But when we told him that we run M&F, the 2nd biggest street art blog in the world, he said "That's like being second in a shitpile!"

"That's what we're going for," I told him, "top of the shitpile."

We didn't expect the guy to be very personable. We have seen him interviewed and he once told a friend of ours to "Choke on a bag of dicks and die!", so we knew there was an edge to him. And we have since been told that he is a fierce graffiti loyalist who things street art sucks, which explains his view.

But it always sucks when you meet someone who's art you enjoy, but they are not so cool in person. And we really liked Espo's 'Love Letters', and think its almost as cool as what Eine is doing.

Oh. Snap~

(And just kidding about offers on the sticker. It is not for sale, or ebay. The story is priceless~)

Hooked Up - Espo

According to Espo, MELROSEandFAIRFAX is 2nd in a shitpile (and we are aiming for first!).

Currently accepting all offers on his sticker~

Lol, Espo hit up a postal sticker for us, but instead of writing his name 'Espo', he wrote 'Ebay'.

We laughed and told him we wouldn't be selling it and hooked him up with a few stickers.

He was cool for about 3 seconds as he stuck out his hand and said, "Hi, I'm Steve Powers." But when we told him that we run M&F, the 2nd biggest street art blog in the world, he said "That's like being second in a shitpile!"

"That's what we're going for," I told him, "top of the shitpile."

We didn't expect the guy to be very personable. We have seen him interviewed and he once told a friend of ours to "Choke on a bag of dicks and die!", so we knew there was an edge to him. And we have since been told that he is a fierce graffiti loyalist who things street art sucks, which explains his view.

But it always sucks when you meet someone who's art you enjoy, but they are not so cool in person. And we really liked Espo's 'Love Letters', and think its almost as cool as what Eine is doing.

Oh. Snap~

(And just kidding about offers on the sticker. It is not for sale, or ebay. The story is priceless~)

At Least One Banksy Piece From LA is Going To A Collector

The craze to get a Banksy piece has reached absolute madness. Nearly every new piece of Banksy's was either cut out (caution) or taken down, and we expect most to end up on ebay.

However, we just received exclusive pics from a 'collector' who got a Banksy piece, and assures us that it will not be going up for sale any time soon. Click the jump to see where one Banksy has found a home.

We got sent these pics of the 'No Parking' sign from Banksy's Crayon Soldier in Westwood by a 'collector' who wishes to remain anonymous. This seems to be more of a piece of Banksy, than a Banksy piece. Still, it was an intricate and active part of the Crayon Soldier wall.

The Crayon Soldier was Banksy's first piece to be discovered in LA, and we were the first to launch the coverage. But even before we snapped the first pics, part of the piece had already been buffed off-including the part of the No Parking Sign. We had already covered how the blue and pink butterflies that were part of the original were an important part of the art, because it showed how a street artist, or 'crayon soldier' goes outside the lines. And the way that the crayon drawings spilled onto the No Parking sign and door are key to demonstrating that point.

And the cool thing about this is that even though it got buffed, the paint didn't get fully cleaned off, and you can still see the blue paint from the wing of the blue butterfly on the No Parking Sign. It might not be much, but its there.

It is also interesting to note how the No Parking Sign came to life on its own as artists and fans would place stickers on the sign when they came to view the Banksy. (We love that it has a MELROSEandFAIRFAX sticker on there!). From the pics we have (shown below) this does appear to be legit and the same sign from the Crayon Soldier piece.

Some people have theorized that the 'Crayon Soldier' was aimed at Banksy's frustrations with parking regulations. While we don't think that this is the case, the No Parking Sign is definitely part of the project. Without a doubt, this is clearly just a piece of Banksy, and not the whole installation. But even if it is still only a piece of a Banksy original, it is still a piece of a Banksy original, and how rare is that!

Now that Banksy's Crayon Soldier has been buffed and gone, we think it is really cool that this has found a home with a collector and won't be (supposedly!) going up for sale. Check out the pics below.



^These are exclusive pics of Banksy's Crayon Soldier before it was buffed. You can see the blue butterfly on the parking sign and the pink butterfly on the door that were later buffed before most pics were taken.



And here are pics of the No Parking Sign

Fakesy NOT A Banksy

Turns out the new piece in England is not a Banksy after all

The stencil of the girl holding an Oscar is most likely not a Banksy.

As our viewers commented, and members of the Banksy Forums have pointed out, the girl is from an earlier Banksy piece titled 'No Future' (partially pictured below), and it is not like Banksy to rehash characters. Also, the detail on this new piece is different. But perhaps the most convincing evidence to prove that it is a fake, a different version of this exact stencil showed up on ebay auction ending earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Banksy or not, the piece in Weston was covered up with plexiglass (pictured below).

We screwed up, and we can admit when we're wrong. Each day, we get a half dozen tips that there might be a new Banksy, and most of the time we can sift through to tell what is a Banksy and what is not. We got fooled on this one. It was a well executed stencil and in Banksy's vicinity, and it was even clever. But perhaps mostly we believed because we were wanting to see a piece from Banksy after the Oscars, and this piece seemed to fit into what we expected to see. But we are learning not to 'expect' anything from Banksy, and just enjoy what he does.

^above are pictures of the ebay stencil

^a close up of Banksy's 'No Future' stencil. Notice the difference in the cuttings, especially in the hair.

^screen shot of the ebay sale page

^the new piece covered with plexiglass

Huge Street Art Combo (pt 2/2)

Part 2 of the huge street art combo building on Melrose. These shots go 'Supreme' style and have some cool pics of abstract 3d art. Click the jump for more.

Supreme gets tiled up with these Lady Gaga posters. These are a hot item on Ebay, and currently fetch $60+ apiece. Which is probably why nearly every one has been attempted to be ripped down.

And a very cool abstract kite piece of street art, with a string tied between the two pieces. The string is not painted on, it is actually a pice of string affixed to the wall. Very cool. Unknown artist.

Also up with 2wenty's Facebook cigarettes, Charlie Sheen's Tiger Blood, and Cyrcle.

Another Banksy Shows Up On Ebay

This sale on ebay is kind of funny. It is a smudge taken from the pastels of Banksy's Crayon House Foreclosure.

I guess that, just like with a Banksy taken from the streets, there is a big question of authenticity.

The starting bid is $99. For better or worse, we expect someone will buy it.

And this second Banksy sale on ebay is downright ridiculous. It is the sale for a cone that was set in front of Banksy's Crayon House Foreclosure, or a 'Banksy Cone' as the description says.

**Thanks to Jeff Sergeant and Justin Kees for the heads up**

Sleazebay- Banksy's Charlie Brown Scammed on Both Ends

The ebay listing purporting to sell Banksy's Charlie Brown Firestarter ended and the final bid went for $8,100.

We posted last night how the listing seemed very suspicious, and was most likely a scam.

Well, turnaround is fairplay and it looks like the scamming seller might have been scammed. Click the jump for more

The winning bidder had only 2 feedbacks with a 0% feedback rating, which means that the only feedback the buyer has gotten has been negative.

It could have been an attempt at a shill bid, something that will drive the price higher. Or it could just be a deadbeat buyer.

Either way, it does not appear that the dishonest ebay seller will be getting paid.

WARNING: Ebay Charlie Brown is a Fake

Yesterday we posted a link to an ebay listing purporting to sell Banksy's Charlie Brown.

The bidding has jumped to over $5,000, and we just wanted to inform the readers that we believe this piece is a scam.

We warned at the time that it seemed sketchy since there were no original pics in the listing, and the description is deceptively vague as it gets calling the piece for sale 'a chunk of concrete with a stenciled art piece on it'.

Hopefully there is still time to cancel bids, but buyer beware!

Banksy's Charlie Brown on Ebay

After the chunk of wall was removed, it was only a matter of time until Banksy's Charlie Brown stencil showed up on Ebay. But who knew it would be so quick?

Although it never mentions Banksy's name, ebay item number 250775628024is reportedly selling the Charlie Brown piece of the wall.

We are not sure if this is legit or not. A good rule of thumb is to be wary of items for sale on ebay that do not have an original picture, and the picture used is of the removal where there was a crowd of people taking pictures (in fact, it seems to be the picture that we posted earlier on the blog!). It would have a lot more credibility if there were more pics of the actual chunk after being removed.

Still, there will be bids on this. Wonder how much it will go for? . . .

The Story Behind Charlie Brown Being Taken

We received a detailed run down of what went down with Banksy's Charlie Brown. Apparently, it was almost painted over before being chopped out. Click the jump below for more actions shots and to read the full story about what went down at the Charlie Brown removal.

We received the pictures and description from the followers of MELROSEandFAIRFAX. Big thanks to all the supporters of MELROSEandFAIRFAX who have been our eyes and ears all over the city. We couldn't do it without you. Special thanks to Cindy Bolf for the rundown and Layla Halfhill for the action pictures.

Cindy contacted us with the following description.

I have been watching your site to get all the up-to-date stories on the Banksy pieces showing up all over LA. You have been doing a great job!

I am writing to give some back story on the Charlie Brown piece. After I saw on your website that it was uncovered, I was so excited that I headed over to the location to get a look at it. I got there at around 4 in the afternoon. There were people there, taking pictures of it and there were 2 dudes. One of them you have pictured in the red hoodie. The other guy that was with him said that they uncovered the Charlie Brown and were going to paint over it. I asked why and if he knew what this was. He said he had no idea what the picture was and what it meant but he had orders from his boss. His boss owned the property and when his boss found out that someone else came to the property and drilled holes in the wall and there was plans for someone else to cut out the wall, they freaked and decided that painting over the Charlie Brown would prevent further vandalism to the building. This guy and red hoodie guy were working with property management.

Many people that came to see the piece pleaded with this guy to not paint over it and told him that it was worth a lot of money, probably even worth more than the charred building that it was on. Well, he and the dude in the red hoodie starting making some phone calls to their boss when they found out that it was worth a lot of money. To further add to the drama, there was a group of 3 guys, one who said he flew in from NY yesterday, was calling his boss to put an offer in on the building to save the Charlie Brown or to maybe cut it out themselves once the building was theirs.

Well, the actual owner of the building put a hold on painting over the Charlie Brown and instead decided that since he owned the building, he was going to order property management to cut out the Charlie Brown instead of painting over it. They boarded it up and said that they are going to wait until people leave to start cutting it out. Then they starting talking about what tools they will use to get it out of there.

Either way, the whole situation is a shame but ultimately, the Charlie Brown wasn't painted over and it is safe somewhere so it saw the better of two lesser ends. I feel that if no one came along with the intention of stealing it, this piece might still be here for everyone to enjoy.

Again, great job on reporting. Looking forward to reading future posts!

Cindy Bolf

Banksy Billboard on Sunset Taken Down

No Longer Dreamin'.

Banksy's 'Livin' the Dream' Billboard Takeover on Sunset has been take down and is no longer running. Click the jump below for more

The billboard was reportedly taken down and rolled up, so keep your eyes peeled on Ebay to see when this surfaces.

This comes only a few hours after the Charlie Brown was boarded up and covered.

It is unfortunate that the Banksy pieces are disappearing so fast. Wonder if its by design, or just business oriented property owners?

So hurry and see remaining two Banksy pieces while you still can!

***Big thanks to John Wellington Ennis for providing these daytime shots of the billboard taken earlier today before it was buffed. You can see more of John's politically infused work at Pay2Play.tv***

Okay, Okay - So THIS is Banksy

The ebay auction that was supposedly removed a couple of days ago has taken some strange twists and turns . . .


First of all, rumors have begun swirling that the entire escapade was another stunt arranged by Banksy.

And then, the ebay seller who had the listing is now claiming that it was not removed, but that he was 'paid off' to take the listing down. He cryptically wrote to Moviefone "I spent 3 years finding the answer. I was paid off, now I can tell you nothing. All I can give you is this photograph."

So there it is. Banksy.

Eh, the seller's story seems unlikely as the bidding had reached $1,000,000--it would have to be quite a buy-out to be sweeter than that. Whatever the outcome of the Banksy identity debacle, MELROSEandFAIRFAX will be sure to keep the status posted.