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Video: Meet The Man Who Rented Banksy His Central Park Stand
By
Jen Carlson
Published Oct 16, 2013
Modified Oct 16, 2013
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Oct 16, 2013
Modified Oct 16, 2013
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Thuptin Kunkhen
Over the weekend Banksy stealthily set up a stand at Central Park South and East 59th Street, with stacks of original pieces being sold by an older gent who was charged with running the pop-up that day. All but three lucky people passed the pieces by, which were being sold for just $60 a pop (they are actually worth hundreds of thousands each).
Yesterday Lizabeth Zindel tracked down the man who rented Banksy his stand—Thuptin Kunkhen and his friend Tenzin told her Banksy rented Kunkhen's "his table and everything," as well as someone else's, paying a total of $500 ($300 to one, $200 to the other). Since he only sold $420 worth of work, that means Banksy actually lost $80 that day!
When pressed, Tenzin said Banksy "should give him [Kunkhen] one artwork," though seemed happy enough with what he did pay for the stand. The two had never heard of Banksy before—"first time I'm hearing his name, and now I know everyone's asking" about him.
Kunkhen was given a phone number, presumably to reach Banksy's team, but when he's attempted to call it after that day... no one has answered.
And ICYMI, here's how that day played out:
Top video filmed by Lizabeth Zindel (she calls it: "Thuptin Kunkhen Deserves a Banksy"), "a novelist with three books published by Penguin, a native New Yorker, and huge Banksy fan who is haunted by 'What if' after being out of town the one weekend he set up shop in Central Park."
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banksy
central park
Thuptin Kunkhen
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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