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Bloomberg To Banksy: No Thanksy
By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 16, 2013
Modified Oct 16, 2013
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 16, 2013
Modified Oct 16, 2013
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Considering how much Mayor Bloomberg just loves graffiti art—the man launched an Anti-Graffiti Task Force within FOUR months of taking office—it's not really that surprising that he doesn't have anything positive to say about Banksy's current open air tour of NYC. "I'll leave it up to our Department of Cultural Affairs," he said today during a press conference, "but look, graffiti does ruin people's property and it's a sign of decay and loss of control."
Not that there's anything wrong with ART, because Bloomberg loves ART, he really does, but who really thinks street art is ART ART, I mean, could you buy it for tens of thousands of dollars or hang it in an ART museum in a special Bloomberg ART WING? Because that's real ART, not this $60 crap that is lowering property values, I mean sheesh.
"Art is art," he said during the announcement about the city's third Water Tunnel. “And nobody’s a bigger supporter of the arts than I am. I just think there are some places for art and there are some places [not for] art. And you running up to somebody’s property or public property and defacing it is not my definition of art. Or it may be art, but it should not be permitted. And I think that’s exactly what the law says.”
Of course, this could all be part of the master plan—how much do we really know about this Michael Rubens Bloomberg anyway? Wouldn't posing as a billionaire control freak with ambitions to remake the world be the perfect cover for a street artist trying to infiltrate and smash dominant capitalist paradigms?
Tagged
art
banksy
banksy ny
bloomberg
graffiti
mayor bloomberg
street art
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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