The Art Newspaper

Bungled attempts at bagging a Banksy

By The Art Newspaper. From In The Frame
Published online: 07 February 2012

Australians make bad art thieves, if an advertising stunt by The Art Series Hotels in Melbourne is any guide. As reported by In the Frame last month, the boutique hotel chain encouraged visitors to steal a work by Banksy from its walls. If anyone succeeded in pinching the work, No Ball Games, they could keep it. When someone did manage to steal the $15,000 work, The Art Series Hotels hung another Banksy, Pulp Fiction, valued at $4,000. Pulp Fiction was not stolen, however, despite would-be thieves exercising their ingenuity. They apparently re-wired internal security cameras so they wouldn’t be seen, distracted staff with scantily clad women, or pretended to be hotel staff or tradesmen. One couple failed because they Tweeted their every move. One man attempted to hook the picture off the wall with a long broom. Having eluded such elaborate ruses, Pulp Fiction will now be donated to Crime Stoppers, a division of the police, and will be auctioned off to raise funds for crime fighting.