An iconic Banksy graffiti installation in the Bronx initially drew the ire of some, but has come to be seen as “local pride” and was shipped to Connecticut this week.
South Bronx residents felt betrayed when the demolition of the building at 651 Elton Avenue removed an exterior wall with “Ghetto 4 Life” graffiti.
“Everyone was crying around us. This is art,” Steve Jacob told the Post about the mural, which has been in the neighborhood since October 2013.
“The gentleman made it for us, for the community. I’ve lived in the Bronx all my life, so this was made for the people of the Bronx,” he said of Banksy’s work. said Jacob, who owns a store across the street. “And now someone has taken it away from us.”
The graffiti first appeared on the wall when the elusive British artist tagged various locations in New York during his “Better Out Than In” series.
It was criticized by then-mayor Michael Bloomberg as a “defamation” and by some who were offended by the use of the word “ghetto” by a white artist in a historically blighted area. Despite this, this piece survived much longer than most Banksy works in the city. They were painted over by rival artists or lost to real estate development.
The work depicted a boy being served by a butler with a spray can on a tray, with the slogan “Ghetto 4 Life” drawn in speech bubble letters.
It was protected by plexiglass under a roll-up gate hidden by a makeshift curtain. According to Welcome2TheBronxWe reported on the demolition of the building last year.
On Monday, Jacob watched as workers from an organization called Fine Art Shippers secured a steel frame around the mural and sawed it away. Then they wrapped it in wood, loaded it upright onto a flatbed truck and drove away.
“How are you going to leave this community? It’s poor, there’s a lot of crime — but we had this work of art and you took it away,” Jacob said.
“anything [Banksy] He did it in photography and he did it for the community. And now that the building is gone, the building’s owner has taken the art and moved it not even to the Bronx or New York, but to Connecticut. The community here is very upset and we can’t do anything about it. ”
The loss of art was also heartbreaking for local store manager Quentin Soto, 34.
“They really took a piece of my heart away. This mural was the pride of this area, and as you can see, we don’t have that much pride,” Soto said.
“The Bronx is not Florence, if you know what I mean. But we have this mural, and people come here from all over the world to appreciate art. I tell people, ‘Banksy mural. “Do you know ‘Ghetto 4 Life?’” he liked to boast. I live there. It’s like bragging about living next to the Empire State Building or something. I really liked it,” he continued.
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“Banksy is all about the people who live in the places he stencils. Something about this photograph has always felt to me to be a perfect representation of what we all are.
“And now it’s in Connecticut, of all places. Not the Bronx Museum, not the Metropolitan Museum of Art, not the Guggenheim Museum. Connecticut.”
Another local resident, electrician Carlo Cintron, 44, said the development was “a big loss for the community”.
“It was really unique and really special. I was always walking past it and always stopping to admire and appreciate it because in some way I always felt like it was a waste of this neighborhood. So, you know what I mean? But here it was. We thought it was permanent, but I guess nothing is permanent in New York real estate.”
It is unclear how much the portion of the wall was sold for. A deliberately shredded Banksy was sold at auction for around $25 million.
David Damaj, who owns 651 Elton Ave., did not immediately return calls to the Post, nor did Fine Art Shippers.
The owner of 800 Union Avenue in Bridgeport, where the work was to be displayed in the courtyard, According to the New York Daily Newscould not be immediately reached.
The newspaper also contacted Banksy representatives for comment.
