With a single email via his PR and authentication people, Banksy has “buffed” the relevance and importance of the mural located on the Bull Taco/Quiver Surfboards wall in Oceanside.
Banksy may now be out of the picture, but the mural mystery continues with a new and potentially more interesting question:
Who painted the mural at Bull Taco?
1. A Banksy fan so dedicated to his graffiti artist idol that he/she would risk arrest to promote Banksy’s documentary ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’. This person would have to construct a scaffolding or park a large van or motor home in front of the wall while painting to hide the view of passing vehicles. Would this really be possible without permission?
2. Banksy himself may have really painted the piece and now be denying it due to its lack of skill and sloppiness. Maybe Banksy had to flee the scene before finishing. Before a vandal and creative marketer, Banksy is an artist, one who would rather return hours later to buff his own sub-par piece than to leave it up.
3. Snyder Art is located only blocks away. “I don’t reproduce other artist’s work to sell tacos,” Snyder says. “I certainly had no involvement!”
4. The City of Oceanside may have commissioned an artist to paint the piece with hopes that it would bring attention and business to the area. If the number of vacant storefronts on the PCH is any indication of struggling businesses, this might be a possibility. Bull Taco has gone on the record claiming they had no prior knowledge of the piece until the discovery Friday morning. This being said, the City of Oceanside considers murals without permission from the business owner as vandalism and enforces immediate removal.
5. Bull Taco and Quiver Surfboards, which have overlapping owners may have painted it as a publicity stunt. The mural is strategically placed so the rat is near the giant Quiver Surfboards and the kite reaches up close to the Bull Taco mural, which is ideal for photos. Quiver immediately capitalized on the mural and printed t shirts for sale of the art for $19.95 and Bull Taco has gloated about drastic increases in business. As stated in option 4, Bull Taco has gone on record claiming they had no involvement. Lets hope so because a blatant lie to customers and the community would seem to be professional and ethically shunned upon and potentially damaging for business.
Fox 5 San Diego reported during a live on site broadcast that Bull Taco claims to have surveillance video of the mural being painted. It was suppose to be released by Bull Taco on Mon. Feb 28th at 10am, but has yet to be seen.
What do you think?
Thanks to Angela Carone from Culture Lust for breaking this story!
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Didn’t that Fox 5 story you linked to break the story that this wasn’t Banksy? It was published 2/28 and says “His public relations firm told Fox 5 the Oceanside graffiti isn’t his.”
Fake? Really? Then can you explain the Banksy sighting last year in Oceanside Harbor?
http://www.sneakaboards.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/sneakaboards.com_.banksysighted.jpg
This is a great start toward exposing the fraud. In law enforcement you always look to who benefits most and in this case it’s obvious. LA based TMZ had the story at 530 am and it was then immediately on the quiver web site along with a photo. This ‘stunt’ aka ‘lie’ caused people to travel from far away to pay homage. then they purchased an overpriced taco from the purps of the lie. It is so wrong on many levels. You have to love the local news outlets all with the same follow up headline…’mural NOT a banksy’. How about We were duped and our journalism is just as fraudulent as the fakesy. Let’s expose these guys and put them out of business.
If it would mean that he could be charged…Why would he admit to it? It’s a trap.