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Smart Crew Sorta Recreated Banksy's Stencil After Sign Was "Stolen"
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 2, 2013
Modified Oct 2, 2013
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Smart Crew
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 2, 2013
Modified Oct 2, 2013
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At some point in last night, someone removed the "Graffiti is a crime" sign from Banksy's Allen Street piece, but it was soon replaced with a new sign courtesy of Smart Crew, which read: "Street art is a crime."
The original piece featured a boy standing on another boy's back and holding a spray paint can, which was inside a "prohibited" sign with the words. Smart Crew says that when they got there, the sign was missing, so they "recreated a similar sign and replaced it within a few hours, with arm stencil and all." Awww—street art collaboration ♥.
Of course, by the morning, the whole thing was completely buffed over—and Smart Crew's sign was missing too! One rumor is that Banksy himself painted over it.
As for the sign, someone on Twitter claims to have it, and is willing to sell it to the highest bidder (though he hasn't presented any evidence that he actually has it). Mark Therrien told us he witnessed the sign being taken to parts unknown, "It was like 9 o'clock. What he did is he came up and he ripped the sign down, and he was kind of falling on his bike when he did it. But he ripped it down immediately and then he drove off, and he fell off his bike." Therrien said no one stopped him—"They were just like 'I can't believe he just did that'"—but said he'd tried to buy it, "I mean, I'm not going to pay a million dollars, but, it's Banksy."
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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