'Birth and death of a Banksy' – mysterious artwork covered up

By Dale Fuchs, The Independent

A work attributed to the British graffiti artist Banksy has caused a dispute in the elegant seaside city of San Sebastian – but not, as is often the case with his work, because the authorities were irked by the defaced wall. The problem this time was that other graffiti artists were so jealous of Banksy's artwork that they tried to destroy it.

The street-art saga began when Banksy's documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop (about people with names like Neck Face and Buff Monster), aired in late September at the San Sebastian Film Festival. The next day, a nine-foot-high image, entitled A Frame Beyond Compare, appeared on a wall in the city's old quarters.

The work depicted a man studying an ornate painting missing a canvas, apparently a reference to the picturesque city or a tongue-and-cheek barb at the films on show and the short lifespan of street art. The graffiti was not signed by Banksy, whose tag has appeared everywhere from fake bank notes to live animals to cartoon signs on a recent episode of The Simpsons. And it was not even clear whether the mysterious artist had travelled to San Sebastian incognito, as he was believed to have done at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

But the work was done with his characteristic black-and-white stencilled style, supposedly inspired by a few anxious minutes of hiding from police under a truck. And the entranced art lover in the image was a clone of a figure that appears on the Banksy website accompanied by the usual dark-humoured cast of Banksy characters, victims of war and capitalist abuses.

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