• Stumble Upon
  • Reddit
  • Digg
 

'Hang-and-Run' Artist Strikes NYC Museums

Banksy secretly hangs one of his artworks at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Courtesy Wooster Collective

Wearing a disguise, the artist known as Banksy secretly hangs one of his works at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

'You have beautiful eyes'
Courtesy Wooster Collective

Banksy's "You have beautiful eyes," installed by the artist at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

text sizeAAA
March 24, 2005

In a reverse-theft of sorts, a British artist has been sneaking his works into some of New York's top museums.

The artist, who goes by the name Banksy, has surreptitiously hung works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the American Museum of Natural History and the Brooklyn Museum.

A self-described "career graffiti writer" and "painter-decorator," Bansky tells Michele Norris that he consulted biographies of Harry Houdini to get ideas about how to sneak into the museums with his artworks, some of which are not small at all.

Asked why he carried out the pranks, Bansky says, simply: "I thought some of [the paintings] were quite good. That's why I thought, you know, put them in a gallery. Otherwise, they would just sit at home and no one would see them."

Related NPR Stories

 
  • Stumble Upon
  • Reddit
  • Digg
 

Podcast and RSS Feeds

PodcastRSS

  • Arts & Life
     
  • All Things Considered
     
 
 

Comments

Discussions for this story are now closed. Please see the Community FAQ for more information.

 

podcasts

NPR Culturetopia Podcast

Culturetopia Podcast

Arts, culture, media and fun from NPR's Neda Ulaby and Monkey See blogger Linda Holmes.

Subscribe

NPR Books Podcast

Books Podcast

NPR book reviews, news and author interviews -- for people who love to read.

Subscribe