The Drinker, by gm on Apr 6, 2006 0:37:09 GMT 1, The Drinker appeared at the very top end of Shaftesbury Avenue around March 2004, sat there for a couple of weeks, and was then kidnapped.





Guardian Unlimited story about it here.

A couple of snippets for anyone who can't be bothered to read the whole thing:

Next day I receive a call. "It's Banksy here," he says. Yes, it's true the statue has gone. "We received a ransom note with pictures of the sculpture with gaffer tape over his eyes and mouth. It looked quite good, actually. And we then received a bit of him in the post. A bit of his shoulder blade, I think."

Banksy has not reported the kidnap to the police. He is not in a position to do so - as Britain's leading graffiti artist, and a celebrated vandal, he is a wanted man. But what could have led the kidnappers to steal the statue? It seems that the kidnap and accompanying manifesto are intended as a guerrilla attack on the notion of Banksy as a guerrilla artist - AK47 appear to be saying that, ultimately, Banksy's art is a commodity like anybody else's.

Banksy, it has to be said, does not sound distraught. Is he willing to pay a ransom? "It depends how much they're asking, I suppose." He pauses. "Actually, I'm quite glad to be shot of him. The thing is, I live in a flat so I've not really got space - it's three and a half tonnes, you know." Also, he says, when it comes down to it, he doesn't think the Drinker is that good. "The trouble is, I don't know much about sculpture and mistakenly thought Rodin was just famous by accident and that I'd be able to pay somebody a couple of hundred quid to do a perfect copy of the Thinker. But it turns out he's really good, and we couldn't copy it properly - it's not as easy as stencils - so it didn't quite look like we wanted."

I ask him why they are holding the Drinker hostage. "It's personal," he says. What does he mean? "Well, a mate of mine went to [Banksy's] exhibition at Christmas and wanted his signature on a piece of work, and was told he would have to pay £175 extra for it signed. Now, we love his art and stuff, but anyone who thinks their signature is worth £175 is getting up himself. He needs to get his feet back on the f**king ground."

Edit: Yay! I worked out how to do links properly

The Drinker appeared at the very top end of Shaftesbury Avenue around March 2004, sat there for a couple of weeks, and was then kidnapped.





Guardian Unlimited story about it here.

A couple of snippets for anyone who can't be bothered to read the whole thing:

Next day I receive a call. "It's Banksy here," he says. Yes, it's true the statue has gone. "We received a ransom note with pictures of the sculpture with gaffer tape over his eyes and mouth. It looked quite good, actually. And we then received a bit of him in the post. A bit of his shoulder blade, I think."

Banksy has not reported the kidnap to the police. He is not in a position to do so - as Britain's leading graffiti artist, and a celebrated vandal, he is a wanted man. But what could have led the kidnappers to steal the statue? It seems that the kidnap and accompanying manifesto are intended as a guerrilla attack on the notion of Banksy as a guerrilla artist - AK47 appear to be saying that, ultimately, Banksy's art is a commodity like anybody else's.

Banksy, it has to be said, does not sound distraught. Is he willing to pay a ransom? "It depends how much they're asking, I suppose." He pauses. "Actually, I'm quite glad to be shot of him. The thing is, I live in a flat so I've not really got space - it's three and a half tonnes, you know." Also, he says, when it comes down to it, he doesn't think the Drinker is that good. "The trouble is, I don't know much about sculpture and mistakenly thought Rodin was just famous by accident and that I'd be able to pay somebody a couple of hundred quid to do a perfect copy of the Thinker. But it turns out he's really good, and we couldn't copy it properly - it's not as easy as stencils - so it didn't quite look like we wanted."

I ask him why they are holding the Drinker hostage. "It's personal," he says. What does he mean? "Well, a mate of mine went to [Banksy's] exhibition at Christmas and wanted his signature on a piece of work, and was told he would have to pay £175 extra for it signed. Now, we love his art and stuff, but anyone who thinks their signature is worth £175 is getting up himself. He needs to get his feet back on the f**king ground."

Edit: Yay! I worked out how to do links properly