26 March 2005Richard Jinman
It is unlikely that many people noticed the bearded man in the raincoat and hat as he made his way through New York's best-known galleries and museums. Even if they did, they could scarcely have guessed what he was up to. In each gallery, unseen by staff or security guards, he surreptitiously hung a piece of his own work next to the old masters and big names of contemporary art.
At the Brooklyn Museum, it was a portrait of a colonial-era soldier holding an aerosol can and standing in front of anti-war graffiti. The Museum of Modern Art gained a Warhol-style print of a can of cream-of-tomato soup bearing the Tesco label and the Metropolitan Museum of Art was left with a small, gold-framed portrait of a woman wearing a gas mask. When he reached the Museum of Natural History, the man hung a glass-encased beetle modified with jet fighter wings, missiles and a satellite dish.
Startled officials at the Met discovered their new painting on March 13, "within minutes" of it being hung in the American wing. It took the Brooklyn until March 16 and Moma until March 17 to find and remove the unwanted art.
But who was the bearded man and what was he up to?
The mystery was solved when a series of photographs was posted on the street art website woostercollective.com this week purporting to show the British graffiti artist, Banksy, committing the act.
The underground artist claims he disguised himself as a "British pensioner" to carry out his act of subterfuge. In a statement accompanying the photographs, Banksy said: "This historic occasion has less to do with finally being embraced by the fine art establishment and is more about the judicious use of a fake beard and some high strength glue. They're good enough to be in there, so I don't see why I should wait."
Banksy, whose work has graced the cover of a Blur album as well as the walls and bridges of London, could not be contacted yesterday. But he did carry out a similar act last year when he inserted a stuffed rat wearing sunglasses, a silver chain and a backpack into London's Natural History Museum.
Marc Schiller, the New York-based founder of woostercollective.com, said the US galleries were unlikely to discard the artworks. "Trust me, they're not throwing those pieces away," Mr Schiller said. "There will be a time when they are worth as much, if not more, than the pieces they were put up next to."
But a spokeswoman for Moma seemed rather less convinced it had been bequeathed a valuable item. She said the picture of the soup can was being held in the gallery's security office. "It's here if he wants to come and pick it up."
Mr Schiller said it was a "travesty" that a graffiti artist had never been granted an exhibition at any of the four New York galleries the British artist had targeted.
"By doing this, Banksy becomes even more of a mythic legend to millions of people who follow what he does and get inspired by him," he said.
A new master
· Well-known for stencilling images of animals and people on to public buildings. One depicted two policemen in uniform, kissing
· Scrawled: "I want out. This place is too cold. Keeper smells. Boring, boring, boring" on to the wall of the elephant enclosure in London Zoo
· Placed The Dunce, a replica of Rodin's The Thinker with a traffic cone on its head, under the Westway motorway in London in July 2003. It was later held to ransom
· In April 2004 put Banksus Militus Ratus, a dead rat with sunglasses, backpack and spray can, on to the wall of the Natural History Museum
· Printed 50 sheets with images of £10 notes showing Diana's face on seventh anniversary of her death
· Crimewatch UK Has Ruined The Countryside For All Of Us, an oil on canvas showing a traditional landscape with police tape, hung in Tate Britain October 2004
· On graffiti and the law: "Graffiti writers are not real villains. I am reminded of this by real villains who consider the idea of breaking in some place, not stealing anything and then leaving behind a painting of your name in 4ft-high letters the most retarded thing they ever heard of".Katy Heslop
Wooster Collective : A Celebration of Street Art
New York's Museum of Natural History...
