As Seen In Chicago Alleys

Little Village, Chicago

Meeting of Styles 2007

California Museums Raided

Four Southern California museums were raided late last week in the continuing effort to crack down on stolen artifacts being offered as donations to museums. According to an Associated Press story, federal agents raided the museums mostly in search of artifacts allegedly taken from Thailand’s Ban Chiang, one of the most prehistoric settlements ever discovered in Southeast Asia. The artifacts were likely smuggled into the U.S. and donated at inflated prices to collectors could claim fraudulent tax deductions.

The story also says that some museum officials initially questioned how the artifacts were obtained, but eventually accepted them.

In the past year some of the largest institutions in the nation (The Metropolitan Museum in New York, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and the J. Paul Getty Museum in California) have been found to have knowingly accept looted artifacts. If the crackdown on stolen art and artifacts is to ever be successful — and if museums hope to improve their tarnished reputations – they need to better investigate where the art comes from and how it got to the U.S.

Making Graffiti Interactive?

As this blogger points out, the problem with graffiti art being anonymous, is that when you stumble upon a really great piece there is no information card attached to the artwork to tell you who made it, when it was painted and what they were referencing with the work.

New technology being tested in Hamburg, Germany, by the new media agency Jung von Matt, would give the viewers information they are looking for. The technology would allow artists to affix interactive stickers to their work that, when photographed with a mobile phone camera, explain the details of the graffiti.

Hamburg’s first interactive wall, called Nextwall, allows viewers to watch videos of the artists painting the wall,  download wallpapers for their phone and virtually ‘tag’ the wall with an “I was here” feature. Another blogger notes the technology can also be expanded to include a comprehensive guide to the graffiti via Bluetooth and allow users to download coupons to area stores.

I wonder if making graffiti more informational would cause more people to foster an appreciation for the art. Graffiti is often just understood and appreciated by the artists themselves and their close circle of followers — could this new technology bring graffiti to the masses?

Judge Acknowledges Graffiti Is Art

An alleged graffiti artist was tried in an Ontario, Calif., court for spray painting at a local skate park. Nothing new, right? Except that in this newspaper’s report, the judge himself acknowledged that the blue-colored abstract looked “more like a painting than mere graffiti.”

The man was still sentenced to 100 hours of community service for the painting, because — art or not — it was a problem for the city, the judge said. A problem that cost the city $1,300 to remove.

As Seen In Chicago Alleys

In Little Village, Chicago

Please note this is not what I would consider a positive example of graffiti, but I do try to show both sides of the graffiti I find. This truck was parked at the site of the meeting of styles event, from what I have heard, this was done by kids who wanted to be a part of the event, but were not participants. 

Precious Art Used As Scrap Metal

Blame it on my limited knowledge of the criminal underworld, but I thought that thieves stole art to sell on some sort of art black market.

While this is likely the case, a blog post on The Portland Oregonian’s Web site says criminals also want art (particularly scultpures) to cut up and sell as scrap metal. Apparently, any metal that doesn’t attract a magnet and can be easily melted down is profitable commodity.

It is sad to know that some stolen art may truly never be found because it has already been made into car parts, office equipment and industrial supplies.

Opening the Dialogue Between Graffiti Artists and the Community

An event in Birmingham in the U.K. will open the line of communication between graffiti artists and community members as they tackle the debate over graffiti art vs. graffiti vandalism.

A group of Birmingham’s graffiti artists will explain the different between graffiti art and graffiti tagging, and how they as artists can help reduce the level of graffiti tagging by harnessing the energy and creativity behind graffiti into something more positive and legal.

The event will discuss one way of reducing illegal tagging – providing ‘managed’ legal graffiti art zones.

An open dialogue between graffiti artists and community members is essential to increasing the understanding of graffiti as an art form and not just an illegal act. I would like to see events of this type occurring on this side of the pond — they may lead to the most productive efforts in the war against illegal tagging.

Stolen Art On Display

Portfolio Magazine has a slideshow called The Gallery of Stolen Art, which features six stolen paintings that have never been recovered. They say this online format may be the only way art lovers will ever see the pricey paintings again. Most were stolen years ago and though many of the thieves have been captured the art is still missing.

What I found most interesting about the slideshow is how much art increases in value when it is stolen. Two of the paintings were worth about $3 million prior to the theft, and now total $10 million in value. Another was only worth $134,000 when stolen in 1988 — now it is worth at least $7 million.

As Seen In Chicago Alleys

By Like.

Chicago’s South Side

Taking Banksy’s Art to the Bank

A London Times article details the high price property owners can net for selling walls painted by the now infamous graffiti artist, Banksy. Though his work sells at auctions for multimillion dollar sums, Banksy will not see a cent of the money from the sale. All the money will go to the property owners. It is interesting that what the property owners likely saw as vandalism when the walls were originally defaced will give them an early retirement.

Banksy himself put it best: “I love the way capitalism finds a place — even for its enemies.”