Toronto Police Service continues to search for Trolley Hunters, a stolen Banksy print. The artwork was stolen from The Art of Banksy in Toronto. Image: Toronto Police.

ART NEWS

When a thief walked into The Art of Banksy show in Toronto and stole Trolley Hunters, a print by British street artist Banksy, many people became suspicious. The stolen Banksy print raises security question and why the important exhibition did not have adequate security.

BY KAZAD

Toronto Police Service ask for help in the search for Stolen Banksy Print

TORONTO, CANADA- Who stole a $45,000 Banksy print from an exhibit in Canada? That is the question the Toronto police is trying to answer as they launch an investigation into the brazing art theft.  The heist happened just before the controversial exhibition opened at the retrofitted brick loft space on 213 Sterling Road.

Just after dawn, an unidentified person walked to the exhibition space and stole the print. The thieve was careful enough to conceal his identity. Dressed in a sweatshirt with hands in armpits and face obscured by a camouflage cap, the dark-dressed lurker breezily walked past several artworks by the artist on display and stole the print.

The stolen Banksy print is titled Trolley Hunters. It depicts crouching men in loincloths armed with stone-tipped wooden spears and axes as they hunt grocery shopping carts in a lush field. The print is one of the centerpieces in The Art of Banksy, an unauthorized exhibit of the street artist’s work. The exhibition features more than 80 works privately owned and curated by Banksy’s former agent Steve Lazarides. Majority of the works in the show tend to be graffiti on building facades seen for free by passers-by, rather than pictures hung from studio walls.  The collection is collectively valued at over $35 million.

Soon after the work was reported stolen, the Toronto police released a surveillance video. It captures a man as he enters the empty gallery via an interior door shortly after 5 am on Sunday. After ducking into the camera’s blind spot, the thief emerges with the artwork in hand and swiftly disappears through the door from which he entered the gallery. There was security or anyone else in sight.

It was unclear why a major art show like The Art of Banksy was without adequate security.  Corey Ross, the president of Starvox Entertainment in Toronto and a producer of the exhibition said staff members became aware of the theft when they came in that morning. “I don’t know who did it or why,” he said. All of the works are on loan from collectors who either bought them online or at a Banksy show.

The sleekness of the thief has given rise to speculations. There are those who think the thief knew the gallery well and what to steal. Others think that the theft was arranged. In fact, there are speculations that Banksy himself stole the work.   Some even think the video is fake.

However, in a recent interview, the show’s publicist Danielle Iversen denied any suggestion that the surveillance video was fake or a publicity stunt. In defense of the fact that the thief worked past all other works by the artist and stole one particular piece, she explained that “the thief may have taken only one Banksy piece out of fear of discovery.”

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In spite of the all the speculations, the Toronto police is not leaving anything to chance.  In that vein, the law enforcement is seeking assistance in finding a man “described as wearing glasses, black jacket, green camouflage baseball hat, blue jeans rolled at the cuff, grey running shoes, and glasses.” They say the Banksy stolen print is worth about $45,000.

Even as the police continue to search for the thief and the stolen Banksy print, Ross is demanding that the work is returned. “We want the work back. What he has taken has value to us, but no value on the street. We have the letter of authentication,” he said. Nevertheless, the promoters of the show are exploiting the theft and fame of the artist to generate interest for the show. This is one of the reasons critics are saying the show is not about art but the value of art.

Steve Lazarides, who was Banksy’s onetime gallerist and agent, is a controversial figure.  In 2008, Banksy and Steve had a falling out. However, that has not stopped him from pushing Banksy’s works. Over the years, he has made a career creating a market for Banksy’s art. In addition to The Art of Banksy, Lazarides has organized another exhibition, Banksy, Greatest Hits: 2002-2008, which will open in London in July.

The Art of Banksy is antithetical to Banksy’s anti-capitalist ethos, which permeates his street art and installations. It is not surprising that the artist did not endorse the show.  Entry fee to the show is $35, a considerable sum given the ubiquity of the artist’s street credit. Moreover, anyone interested in seeing many of the works on display in the show can go on google and see whatever there is to see. Many of the works are not new, and there is a major argument that the artist is in a new era different from what Steve has on display.

Although the promoters of the exhibition have said the Trolley Hunters has no value in the hands of the thief, the print has an important provenance. It was first exhibited in 2006 during Banksy’s Barely Legal show in Los Angeles.  The show featured a live elephant swabbed in red paint and adorned with gold fleurs-de-lis. He titled it The Elephant in the Room.  The show billed as Banksy’s first large-scale exhibition in the United States was a hit and launched the artist’s career.  Banksy later released color editions of the print.

Banksy is notorious and yet private. Although his works are everywhere, nobody seems to know who he is. He is a prankster and an obnoxious character full of antics.  Once, he snuck his work into the Metropolitan Museum of Art and hung it on the wall. Recently, Banksy submitted a work to the Royal Academy’s annual summer exhibition under the name Bryan S. Gaakman. The work was rejected outright. However, a month after the work was rejected “I got a mail from the co-coordinator Grayson Perry asking me to submit something so I sent it again,” Banksy said on Instagram. He resubmitted it after a revision, and “It’s now hanging in gallery 3,” he said.

As the search for the stolen Banksy print continues, one question persists: Why is it that such a valuable collection was left without adequate protection. The LiveNation and Starvox promoters of the show have not been able to provide any answers except that the stolen work was valued at $45,000 ($34,000). The search continues for the stolen Banksy print.

Since the show opened, it has come under intense criticism. On social media like Twitter and Facebook, people are questioning the idea of the show, which does not conform to the artist’s anti-capitalist ideals. They have also criticized the high entry fee.  The $35 entry fee, they contend, is too much for an exhibition with works that many people are already familiar with. In other words, there is nothing to see here.  Lazarides and his cohorts, however, seem unperturbed by all the criticism. Already, more than 50,000 tickets have been sold and the organizers are even printing more.

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Toronto police have continued the search for Trolley Hunters, a Stolen Banksy Print, and the thief that stole from the exhibition. What do you think about security at art shows? Share your thoughts.