Banksy Cancels Art Because The Police Don’t Get It

Banksy’s scheduled art piece for today has been “cancelled due to police activity,” according to the street artist’s website.

According to Gothamist, this is what might have happened: on Monday, Banksy hired an actor to shine the show of a giant Ronald McDonald statue as part of one of his already unveiled moveable works. The statue was placed outside of a McDnalds on Essex and Delancey in the LES, where police gave the shine boy a ticket for “disorderly conduct,” as he was blocking the sidewalk and inciting a crowd to form.  Sorry, did we say “police?” What we mean is that five cop cars with ten officers showed up to take the statue away. Which is, you know, a lot.

So Banksy’s retaliation? No art today. Which seems counterintuitive, because that appears to be exactly with the NYPD wants. Still, though — five cars, guys? Isn’t there, like, a murderer you should be bothering somewhere?

Also, on an unrelated note: Is it just us or does Banksy’s cancellation notice look familiar?

Come on, tell us we’re not the only one who sees the resemblance. It’s almost the same font!

(via The Verge, images via The Iron Giant, Banksy and Arrested Development)

Meanwhile in related links

• Well, you know what they say: great artists steal
• We have a new sculpture we would like to show those cops
• This sculpture’s pretty great, too, for Transformers reasons