The hit-and-run British artist Banksy's parting gift to New York—where he worked for a highly publicized month in October—has been impounded by the New York police department. The balloon artwork—which spelled the artist's name, plus an exclamation mark—was first spotted last Friday attached to the side of a building in Queens and later authenticated on Banksy's website as an original. The next day police arrested three men caught after they stole the balloons (not a smash-and-grab, apparently, since the balloons were suspended about 20 feet off the ground), after which the cops deflated them and took them away. The balloon artwork spells the artist's name as well as an exclamation mark. The police's property division said that the artwork was inventoried as a balloon; since apparently such item descriptions do not get changed, the artwork—officially only balloons—is now practically worthless and therefore unlikely to be headed for a gallery. Legally, the Banksy work is now the property of the building's owners, but so far the work remains unclaimed.
(Posted November 10, 2013)