Street Art which was Cut Off Walls Resurfaces!

Last year, Los Angeles was caught up in street art fever.  Banksy had just come through town, and people thought every stencil in the city might be a Banksy.  At the height of this craze, there was an 'art grab like never before', and on one building on Melrose, 6 separate pieces were cut out of the wall.

M&F thought that this was one of the most fascinating stories of 2011.  Well, the pieces cut from the building just reappeared on the streets!


This 'art grab' was fascinating for many reasons.  Even though none of the pieces on the wall were from Banksy, street art was in such high demand at the time that people wanted a piece of anything that was street art.  Also, many of the pieces that were cut out of the wall were wheat pastes, which, if you really want, one can peel off the wall instead of cutting the wall out.  It seemed like whoever had the pieces cut out was hoping to get rich, and the reappearance of these pieces suggests that they have now given up on that hope.

Here are shots of the Accountability piece from the art grab after it reappeared.  You can see from the side shot how thick the cement is. This piece must weigh a couple hundred pounds!

The workers at the time told us that the owner wanted the art and instructed them to cut it out, but no one has ever claimed responsibility for taking the pieces.  We don't know where they have been for the past year and a half, but there were 6 pieces cut from the building on Melrose, and at least 2 of them have reappeared in an alley way behind La Brea, in between 2nd and 3rd street on the West side of the street.