- Title: UNITED STATES: PREVIEW TO FIRST EVER AUCTION OF GRAFFITI ART IN NEW YORK
- Date: 14th June 2000
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA (FILE) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS GRAFFITI ON WALLS (3 SHOTS) 0.16 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA (JUNE 14, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 2. PAN DOWN: PUCK BUILDING 0.21 3. LV: GRAFFITI ART ON DISPLAY 0.24 4. WS: "TURMOIL" BY BLADE 0.27 5. CU: "NAKED CITY" BY PC KID AND CAINE I 0.32 6.
- Embargoed: 29th June 2000 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVAE9D1W948YBMCFDSP9R2XJKS0A
- Story Text: For the first time, controversial urban art or graffiti
will go on the auction block this week in New York. Featuring
pieces from over one hundred graffiti artists from the 1970s
to present day.
Unusual though it maybe, one man's criminal act is
another man's art.
Chronicling the controversial artform's birth to present,
Guernsey's will present the most comprehensive collection of
graffit art to date.
Graffiti expert, Hugo Martinez explained the lure of this
unique art "It's kind of the sanctification in a way, of
individuality, it's about trade names it's about expressing or
appropriating private property and making it theirs in a city
that if you don't own property you are nobody."
More than 400 paintings, drawings, culpture and
constructions as well as photography and miscellaneous items
will for the first time be auctioned off Wednesday (June 14)
and Thursday (June 15) this week.
Arland Ettinger, the president of Guernsey's wsa surprised
that this was the first time for such an auction "But once we
committed to it, once we announced it we found out very
clearly that there had never been an auction of graffiti art
at first I really questioned that but it became a fact and it
just made me feel all the better that we were, if going out on
a limb is what you want to call it or however you want to
categorize it, to be the first to do it is what we've done
here."
The items up for auction, to be held at the trendy Soho
Puck building, will also be accessible to bidders online, via
the icollector.com site. There are no minimum bids on the
art, which in many cases if the artist were caught while
creating the graffiti would be considered a criminal act.
In the meantime the city remains a canvas for artists who
might one day see their works being sold at auction.
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