New York City is losing one of its last surviving public works by famed British artist Banksy — to Connecticut.
“Ghetto 4 Life,” the controversial mural in the South Bronx, was removed by a work crew on Monday afternoon and transported to Bridgeport, Conn., where it will eventually be put on public display, according to a representative for the owner.
The painting depicts a young boy graffitiing the words “Ghetto 4 Life” in bubble letters as a butler offers him a tray of spray cans. The Melrose building it was part of for over a decade, 651 Elton Ave., is currently being demolished to make way for a charter school.
“They’re going to restore it, make sure that they bring it back to its original state,” said Derrick Asante, the project manager. “And then once it’s done, we’re going to enclose it nicely.”
Oleg Kushnirsky of Fine Art Shippers was charged with removing the mural and described it as an “extremely” difficult engineering task that involved cutting the wall around it and making a hole under the ground. His company also moved another Banksy mural from a Midwood, Brooklyn gas station in 2019.
“Ghetto 4 Life” is temporarily relocating to the courtyard of 800 Union Ave. in Bridgeport, two hours away from its original home. The circa-1940 factory complex turned business hub is owned by Kiumarz Geula of Pillar Property Management, who also owns the Elton Ave. property and other parcels in Bridgeport.
Asante said the property is private but houses a tap room and events space that would make the mural publicly accessible, to a degree.
“I guess maybe at some point the owners would consider making a show or something to display it, because he really wants people to come take pictures,” he told the Daily News, adding that “Ghetto 4 Life” would likely be enclosed in non-reflective glass.
The mural was publicly visible for the first time in years earlier this month when workers uncovered it to ready it for transportation after being kept behind scaffolding and a metal gate.
On Monday the roughly 10-ton, 9-by-20-foot slab was loaded vertically onto a truck by a crane with the help of about a dozen workers; the mural itself was secured behind wood and steel.
“Ghetto 4 Life” proved contentious when it was popped up in October 2013 as part of Banksy’s monthlong “Better Out Than In” series around New York City. Then-Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and some locals criticized it at the time, claiming it perpetuated negative stereotypes about the neighborhood.
Steve Jacob has been in the area for decades and runs an electronics shop across the street. He and other locals are sad to see it go.
“We are not happy. [Banksy] did the drawing for the community, and now you’re taking it away from the community,” he said. “This is supposed to stay in the Bronx.”
According to Asante, the owners had tried offering the mural to schools in the Bronx and even MoMA without success.
“What can we say, we can’t make everybody happy,” he said. “The best thing was to safeguard it someplace else, and the only place he could do it was Connecticut.”
In a rare interview with The Guardian in 2015, Banksy said he doesn’t “think much about it” when a work of his is resold or removed.
“But for the art form as a whole it’s unhealthy. When you paint illegally you have so much to contend with – cameras, cops, Neighborhood Watch, drunk people throwing bottles at your head – so adding ‘predatory art speculators’ to the mix just makes things even harder,” he said. “Graffiti is an important and valid art form, it would be a shame if it was killed by venture capitalism.”
With the removal of “Ghetto 4 Life,” the “Zabar’s Banksy” on the Upper West Side is believed to be the last remaining public piece by the anonymous artist within the five boroughs.
