Unbanked

So, I was told last night there were more street art pieces around the Baltic Triangle, near the Monkey mural I posted the other day. And looking at pictures of them on a friend's phone, they did look more like Banksy than the Monkey. Four of them were having an explicit dig at Sincura - who were working with NPG, the developers and had promised a museum of street art. But NPG have now pulled out of Liverpool altogether after a row about the Chinatown development, taking "their" Banksy's with them. They now say the Banksys won't re-appear in Liverpool, but they haven't otherwise said what their plans are for the works.

That announcement clearly annoyed a lot of people and Sincura's attitude hasn't gone down well. As a side show, it seems Sincura are planning a book release in 2018 entitled "Stealing Banksy?" in which they say the identity of Banksy will be revealed. You really couldn't make up this stuff if you tried. Such cynical self promotion that gets the punters to pay a price to be lectured at about how caring and responsible are Sincura is astonishing. If you want to know who Banksy really is, then you don't have to try too hard to find out.

Maybe it was the beer talking, but looking on Dave's phone we'd managed to convince ourselves these were legitimate Banksys. There were some familiar references - the Gangsta Rat and the billboard wearing monkey. But, also, one of them had been "signed" which is unusual these days. That a number of them employed the use of text also seemed odd.

Nonetheless, we argued, all these pieces had appeared during the KLF stunt and Banksy and Cauty are known to have been previous collaborators, in particular at Dismaland. It made sense and seemed to fit into place, at least after the third pint. Maybe Banksy had been one of the participants at the KLF party, we wondered. (But if Del Naja had been there, surely someone would have recognised him. There would have been a tweet or a selfie on twitter or something).

I put this all out of my mind and went off in search this morning. I found 7 pieces apart from the two I've already posted on here. I came home processed them and put them online, all entitled Banksy?


It didn't take long to get a response and in the event, it seems the works are all done by either one or both of John D'Oh or Silent Bill. The Echo, however, continues to speculate, but I now think they're just spinning a line to get more clicks and views.

So, there's the tale. It wasn't quite the one I thought it might have been, but it's been a fun diversion for a few days.

Anyway, here are the other Not Banksys.