New York – When the enigmatic street artist Banksy painted a heart -shaped balloon covered with a curite on the wall of a Brooklyn warehouse, the indescribable brick building was instantly transformed into an art destination and the canvas of an unlikely graffiti battle.
Almost as soon as Banksy revealed the piece in 2013, an anonymous labeling was blatantly and painted with spray The words “Omar Nyc” in red next to the globe, to dismay of the spectators.
Days later, someone trampled “is a girl” blank and pink next to the Omar label, followed by a seemingly sarcastic phrase in black: “I remember my first label.” Some think it was Banksy who secretly returned to the scene to add the replica.
The apparent battle of Graffiti did not end there. Another tagger also tried to leave its brand, but was hindered by security guards. Today the “Shan” phrase is still visible in light purple paint.
Maria Georgiadis, whose family owned the warehouse now demolished and finally eliminated the wall section to preserve the work of art, says that the graffiti pastiche is essentially new york.
“It looks like an ongoing war,” he said recently. “They are literally going on the wall.”
The preserved wall, called “Battle to Survive a Broken Heart”, will go on sale on May 21 in Guernsey’s, the New York auction house.
Georgiadis, a Brooklyn school teacher, says the sale is bittersweet. His father, Vassilia Georgiadis, directed his company of Asbestos roofs and abatiments from the warehouse adorned with the globe.
He died four years ago at 67 years of a heart attack, so some of the sale income will be donated to the American Heart Association.
“It is very significant for us because he loved and was very full of love,” said Maria Georgiadis on a recent visit to the art warehouse where the piece was stored for more than a decade. “It’s like the heart of bandage. We all have love, but we have all gone through things and simply put a small help and keep moving, right? This is how I take it.”
The wall section of almost 4 tons and 6 feet high (3.6 tons and 1.8 meters high) is one of a series of guerrillas, the famous British secret artist made during a residence in New York in 2013.
At that time, Banksy announced the work by publishing on its website Photos and an audio track Partly engraved in a chillida voice and induced by Helio.
The president of Guersey’s auction house, Arlan Ettinger, said it is impossible to know with certainty because Banksy works clandestinely. But he said that the orderly stagnation and writing “strongly suggest that this was a gentle way for Banksy to put the other artist in his place.”
Ulrich Blanché, Professor of Art History at Heidelberg University in Germany, described the piece on a “very well executed” remarkable staff in part due to Banksy’s decision to place it in the Brooklyn port area of Red Hook.
“This part of New York was not easy to reach at that time,” he said by email. “Banksy wanted people to go to places in New York who have never seen them and love them too.”
But Blanche questioned whether the additional text was really Banksy’s work, which said that the choice and design of the word do not seem to compete with the artist’s style at that time.
“Calling a type of graffiti a ‘girl’ is not something that Banksy would do in 2013. This is misogyy and immature in a sexist way,” he wrote. “Three different sources that do not coincide and three colors: why should that?
Blanché also said that he is ambivalent about the pending sale, and points out that Banksy generally does not authorize his street pieces for sale. At the same time, it includes the load placed in the owners to protect and keep them.
“Banksy’s works must be kept, but for the community for which they were made,” he said. “They should not become goods. They are made and designed for a specific location. It is not portable. It cannot be sold.”
Banksy spokesmen did not respond to an email in search of comments.
Maria Georgiadis’s brother, Anastasios, said her father also hoped to keep the piece in the red hook after cutting her from the wall and framed in thick steel for her custody.
The old Georgiadis, he said, imagined work as the centerpiece of a retail and housing development in the property, a dream that did not realize. Since then, the property has been sold by the family.
Ettinger said it is difficult to say what the piece could look for. There is little precedent for the sale of a piece of Banksy of this size, he said.
In 2018, a canvas that was part of the series “Girl With Ballon” of Banksy was sold in London for 1.04 million pounds ($ 1.4 million), only for Famous self -destructive In front of a multitude of stunned auctions.
Maria Georgiadis said that he hopes whoever buys the “broken heart” finds the same beauty and means that his father took out of the piece.
When Banksy painted it, the family business had been recovering from destructive floods caused by Hurricane Sandy The previous year. Georgiadis remembers that his father had no idea who Banksy was, but was moved by the simple image.
“My dad had in his head that Banksy knew for what we were happening,” he said. “He says: ‘Can Maria believe it? It’s a heart.”
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Follow Philip Marcelo in twitter.com/philmarcelo.
