Banksy Trashes Bin Ladin

Osama Bin Ladin gets killed, and people get rich?

The Poke is reporting that last night, the night after Obama announced that Osama Bin Ladin had been killed, Banksy stenciled 1000 trash receptacles in the poorest areas of Britain with an Osama image. The Poke claims (through an intermediary of a spokesperson for Banksy's spokesperson) that the stenciled are indeed authentic Banksy pieces.

Since Banksy's work is generally worth thousands of dollars, if these are indeed Banksy pieces, then a thousand of Britain's poorest families just got rich.

Not sure what the meaning is of seeming 'gifting' on the day of Osama's death. Maybe there is a deeper context to putting the image on a trash bin? Could it be Banksy was making up for possibly making a homeless man more homeless? Or maybe Banksy was trying to quell potential urban revolt in the poor, disenfranchised areas of Britain? Perhaps its to steer the conversation away from the talking points of the pundits on television? Or maybe this is reading too much into things and, like always, Banksy just wanted to keep folks guessing!

We have some reservations about this, in large part due to the sheer ability to stencil 1000 pieces in a night. We know that Banksy has a team, but even for 3 or 4 teams, it is quite an ordeal to stencil a couple hundred pieces in one night. So we are puzzled about the logistics of how this could be done.

Stay tuned to MELROSEandFAIRFAX for further updates, and keep an eye on ebay for Banksy's Osama Trash Bins.

And if this is Banksy, perhaps 'philanthropist' should be added to Banksy's title, along with 'vandal'.


***UPDATE: This story did not really happen. It is from a publication that is like the Onion, which is a (hilarious) parody news site. So, great story, but a parody, not truth.***



***Big thanks to Dennis from ColorsinLA for sending in the tip!***