Almost as soon as reports of a new Banksy in Hastings came in, local observers feared it could be victim of the buff of Hastings Borough Council.  Well worry not.  Hastings Observer reports that the piece will be granted a reprieve:

Councillor Jay Kramer, deputy leader of Hastings Borough Council, said: “I think this is great.

“I know that we have a zero tolerance policy on graffiti, and that is absolutely right. However, we have to be flexible so on this occasion I have agreed that Banksy can be an exception to our rule and can stay.”

Indeed, it would be a pretty idiotic council that removed any authentic Banksy in this day and age.  So now, all Hastings has to worry about is the piece being defaced by other writers (incidentally, that process has already begun with the addition of the letters ‘ICF’ above the piece).  What are the odds on a Team Robbo contingent making a coastal road trip at this point?  Before that inevitably happens, here are some more detail shots.

Photo credits from top to bottom: Jude Hutchings, Emma Byrant, the lonely villein and Emma Byrant (again).

If you want to go check out the newest Banksy street art in Hastings for yourself, its location near Marine Court, on the beach below St Leonards Parish Church.  Enjoy.

It’s been a while, but it appears Banksy’s back putting up, on home soil no less.

This piece has just been captured in Hastings, which  EINE calls home.

VIA.

Banksy’s been quiet of late by his standards, but that silent spell might have been broken over in Portland, US.  Either that or there’s a very accomplished impostor at work, judge for yourself ..

Most notably, there’s this blue rain NOLA that just went up.

This photo was taken by Tim F.S. Brown, who spotted it at SE 12th & Stark in Portland.

There are a couple of things that suggest this isn’t authentic.  Firstly, it would be unusual for Banksy to revisit a piece that originally had a very location specific message.  NOLA first appeared in New Orleans of course, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and the image went on to be one of Banksy’s most desirable prints.  The composition is a little off too – she appears to be floating.  But then there are a couple of things right with it too – the rain for instance is pretty much spot on.  The stencil itself isn’t perfect, lacking a bit of finesse certainly down the right side of her body, but it’s well executed and rarely are Banksy street pieces 100% perfect.

And another thing, why would anyone go to so much effort to fake a piece like this?  It doesn’t look like it could be cut from that wall for resale any time soon.

Anyway, here are a couple more images.

Thanks to Squid Vicious for these photos.

Too good to not be real?  Shameless rip off?  If nothing else, taking into account the ‘What the fuck is my street art strategy’ meme, it’s certainly a bit of a coincidence either way.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

By now you may well have heard that Banksy was amongst the artists who donated a piece to join the Rooftop Burner Fund to aid friend Rowdy, who lost everything when his house, including his studio, recently burnt down.

Banksy’s donation came in the form of a unique version of his NOLA print, originally released in 2008, and now up for sale in the form of this special ‘Fire Sale’ version.

From the auction:

Unique version of this iconic print
Signed by the artist and hand marked ‘Fire Sale’
4 colour screenprint
56 x 76cm
Full COA from Pest Control

This is a version of the classic and long sold out Nola print. The colourway itself is mega rare, but this is the only print that will ever have the inscription ‘Fire Sale’ hand written by Banksy (see picture below). Thus you’re looking at a unique Banksy print!

In the words of Pest Control:

“the print is unique (in that there’s only ever going to be one with this dedication) but there are a few others in this colour combination. They are all slightly different though, as the ink’s look behaves differently on every print.”

The green ink used behaves very fluorescent, but this is impossible to pic up on a digital camera, so it’s actually even better in the flesh!

Some close ups of the print:

The full listing is on eBay here, and remember this is a total one off Banksy print, and is being sold for a very good cause so if you can spread the word.

As I type bidding is currently up to £7,701  and there is over 24 hours to go.

There are also a number of other pieces up for auction all in aid of the Rowday cause, check them out here.

More details of the project can be found on the Steal From Work site.

UPDATE: Final sale price was £8,233.00.

This was a pretty big week for auctions featuring solid Banksy originals.  Bonhams held their Vision 21 sale at Knightsbridge on Wednesday, while Sotheby’s had their  Contemporay Art Day Auction the previous day.  Often, these sales unearth some rarely seem gems from the hands of private collectors, and this week’s auctions were no exception.

Perhaps most exciting of all was a very early canvas of Banksy’s most famously misspelled work, Heavy Weaponary.  Dating from 1998, this canvas is something of a rarity, and unlike the later black and white editioned pieces from 2003 (like this one), it’s a total one off.

This canvas is doubly interesting because it’s colouring echoes this one that was on display at Banksy Vs. Bristol Museum in 2009, which was presumeably made much later.   This particular Heavy Weaponary sold at Bonhams for £38,400, inclusive of buyers premium.

Another great early Banksy canvas that sold at Bonhams was ‘Lenin on Rollerblades’ (also known as ‘Who Put the Revolution on Ice?’).

From an edition of 25, this 2003 canvas sold for £15,600 inclusive of Buyer’s Premium.

The final Banksy original at Bonhams was a much later piece – a unique watch tower sculpture originally from Santa’s Ghetto in Bethlehem in 2007 – although it’s dated as 2008 on the auction page.

This sold for £5,400 inclusive of Buyer’s Premium.

A few signed Banksy prints also cropped up at Bonhams: An ‘I Fought the Law’ (2004) sold for £5,280, a ‘CND Soldiers’ (2005) sold for £3,600 and a ‘Napalm’ sold for £4,800.

See the full auction catalogue here.

Meanwhile, Sotheby’s sale included a couple of hard to find originals, starting with Winnie the Pooh (Money Trap).

Estimated at £20-30,000, this smashed that with a hammer price of £43,250.

Finally, Sotheby’s had this Flying Copper.

This too comfortably exceeded its £20-30,000 estimated, hammering at £38,450.

All in, it was a strong showing for Banksy at auction, and an interesting glimpse into some of those rarely seen original early pieces.

Banksy hasn’t hit UK shores for a little while, but he still hasn’t broken with tradition with an appearance at Glastonbury.   Back in 2007, he created a portable toilet sculpture as well as that police stop and search piece, along with many confirmed and unconfirmed sightings before and after.

Fast forward to 2010

Photo via The Telegraph.

This wouldn’t be the first time Banksy has used Glastonbury’s fence as a canvas – and of course  Banksy has regularly used the CND symbol (notably in the print CND soldiers from 2005), with the same applying to the heart on a placard, (see the 2004 Banksy print Love Rat).   Not to mention this piece from San Francisco which incorporated both symbols.  It’s more than likely him, effectively.

Here’s the new Banksy in a little more detail, courtesy of the lonely villein.

Direct photo links: photo 2 & photo 3.

So far, this is the only Banksy to have been spotted at Glastonbury 2010 – but if any others crop up we’ll update this post. Spotted something yourself?  Feel free to let us know via Twitter.

In the aftermath that followed Banksy’s visit to New York, the destruction of a couple of his pieces was caught on camera.

Now, the creation of one may have come to light.

Much of the UK press claimed Banksy was caught on CCTV in London recently, and as initial suspicions confirmed, this was a fake.  This time around though, Banksy might well have been actually caught on camera.  If not quite Banksy unmasked (given that he was wearing a full face balaclava), it still appears to be him, on camera.    As well as the official photo of Banksy having his portrait done that appeared on banksy.co.uk recently, another photographer was there to capture it too.

Pete Van Vlee took this photo, and uploaded it to Flickr with the caption “Some guy in a ski mask getting his sketch drawn in New York’s Central Park”.  Of course that ’some guy’ was Banksy.   Pete’s other picture is below.

So there we have it, Banksy finally caught on camera.  If nothing else, the large numbers of people around in the first photo really does demonstrate the audacity of Banksy’s appearance.  Or does it?   The photographer adds: “Nobody else was taking photos while I was there. Most people walked by without noticing at all, which I did too at first. Funny that there were so many people there but no one paying attention”.

Banksy’s homepage had another update, including a couple of gems not seen before.  Here are the all new Banksys from the update that we haven’t already documented here.

First up, in Brooklyn.

This one seemed to pass by almost unnoticed by the internet until appearing on Banksy’s site, give or take a grainy Twitpic a couple of weeks ago.

The fate of one Detroit Banksy has now become something of an ongoing saga, but this other Detroit piece (below) seemed to slip under the radar, until appearing on his site.

These two just popped up too.

Finally, Banksy gets his portrait done.  In daylight.  On a busy New York street.

Check the update here on Banksy’s outdoor page.

These days, it seems no sooner has a Banksy gone up, it gets either cut from the wall to be resold, buffed, reworked, or “vandalised” (as much as you can vandalise vandalism).  Banksy’s latest stop on his US tour, New York was no exeption.

The culpit in this case seems to be a tagger going by the name of Omar, and unusually the whole thing has been captured for posterity on film.  If you’re interested in seeing original street Banksys wiped out in a matter of seconds, here’s the footage.

Which was closely followed by this.

Both videos originally uploaded by rattrap nyc.  How those pieces and the other New York Banksy street art pieces looked before they were wiped are documented here.

Thanks to amolho4 for these photos.  This one only lasted moments before being gone over by Omar – see the photos of this and how it looks now here.