The piece now stands on an ornately patterned tile floor, surrounded by other contemporary art. It was not possible to independently confirm his account of its journey.
The massive block was then enclosed in a steel frame so it could be lifted onto a flatbed truck and rolled through a checkpoint, until it arrived in Tel Aviv in the middle of the night. He said the relocation involved delicate negotiations with his Palestinian associate and careful restoration to remove the acrylic paint sprayed over Banksy's work. Palestinian residents cut out the painting and kept it in private residences until earlier this year, Abergel said. Some time later, the painting was itself subjected to graffiti by someone who obscured the painting and scrawled “RIP Bansky Rat” on the block. The graffiti artwork was spray-painted on a concrete block that was part of an abandoned Israeli army position in Bethlehem, next to a soaring concrete section of the separation barrier. He declined to disclose the sum he paid or identify the seller, but insisted on the deal's legality. The 900-pound concrete slab would have had to pass through Israel's serpentine barrier and at least one military checkpoint - daily features of Palestinian life and targets of Banksy's biting satire.Ībergel, who is a partner with the Tel Aviv gallery, said he bought the concrete slab from a Palestinian associate in Bethlehem.
The 70-kilometre (43-mile) journey it made from the West Bank to Tel Aviv is shrouded in secrecy. The Associated Press could not independently confirm the authenticity of the piece, but Abergel said the cracks and scrapes in the concrete serve as “a fingerprint” that proves it is the same piece that appears on the artist's website. He said the gallery was simply displaying the work, leaving its interpretation to others.
“This is the story of David and Goliath,” said Koby Abergel, an Israeli art dealer who purchased the painting, without elaborating on the analogy. Now it resides at the Urban Gallery in the heart of Tel Aviv's financial district, surrounded by glass and steel skyscrapers. They employed Banksy's trademark absurdist and dystopian imagery to protest Israel's decades-long occupation of territories the Palestinians want for a future state. The painting initially appeared near Israel's separation barrier in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem and was one of several works created in secret around 2007. The relocation of the painting - which depicts a slingshot-toting rat and was likely intended to protest the Israel occupation - raises ethical questions about the removal of artwork from occupied territory and the display of such politically-charged pieces in radically different settings from where they were created. A long-lost painting by the British graffiti artist Banksy has resurfaced in a swank art gallery in downtown Tel Aviv, an hour's drive and a world away from the concrete wall in the occupied West Bank where it was initially sprayed.
0 kommentar(er)
