The Drinker (Banksy)

The Drinker is a statue by graffiti artist Banksy, not to be confused with the stencil of the same name, a graffiti artwork of a rat drinking a cocktail, on a wall at North Beach, Lowestoft, England.[1][2]

The Drinker
ArtistBanksy
Year2004 (2004)
MediumMetal
ConditionStolen
LocationLondon, United Kingdom
Coordinates51°31′00″N 0°07′35″W

History

In 2004, the statue was placed, in a small square at Princes Circus, on Shaftesbury Avenue, between New Oxford Street and High Holborn, central London.[3][4] It is a subversive comment using The Thinker by Auguste Rodin.[4]

In March 2004,[5] The Drinker was stolen by "art terrorist", football hooligan[6] Andy Link, a former porn star,[6] with an arrest record,[6] and a record of drug charges,[6] (also known as AK47).[7]

Around a year after Link took The Drinker, Link says he registered "the lost and found item" with police, and contacted Banksy, asking for £5,000, or an original canvas, "to cover costs".[8]

In 2007,[8] three years after Link stole it, the sculpture was taken from Link's garden,[9] while he was away.[4][10]

In December 2015, Link re-installed, as "The Stinker", "an imitation of Banksy’s sculpture"[11] "The Drinker", modified with a toilet seat, cistern, and graffiti, in central London.[12]

"The Stinker" (2015) was a commissioned from sculptor Emmanuel Okoro.[13]

The 2016 crowdfunded documentary (with "dream-reenactment sequence", "amusing artifice"[14]) film The Banksy Job is about Andy Link and the work.[15][16][17][18]

See also

Further reading

References
  1. Tallis, Justin (8 August 2021). "People gather to view a graffiti artwork of a rat drinking a cocktail, which bears the hallmarks of street artist Banksy, on a wall at North Beach". Getty Images. Lowestoft, England: AFP. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  2. "Banksy: Council 'appalled' at Lowestoft mural vandalism". BBC News. 15 August 2021. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  4. Graham-Harrison, Emma (17 November 2019). "Artist who 'kidnapped' Banksy's Drinker claims Sotheby's selling stolen statue". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Archived from the original on 17 November 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2019 – via www.theguardian.com.
  5. Hattenstone, Simon (2 April 2004). "But is it kidnap?". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 August 2023. I haven't got a clue what this means, so I ask the Guardian's art critic, Adrian Searle. "This is the sort of thing that really, really bad wannabe artists blurt out, as a sort of verbal smokescreen," he says. "The tone is telling - wounded, aggressive, hectoring, melodramatic, apocalyptic, with feeble stabs at humour. It is a waste of my 'primary processes' to try to get to the bottom of it, if it has one. In my view, AK47 are a few seminars short of an art-theory course. In any case, loads of art deals with time, and with the fact that art is a process and a journey as much as it is about objects which can be bought and sold. And who believes all this rot about 'timelessness' any more, anyway? Maybe they were hit on the head by one of those leaky rocks."
  6. Zeitchik, Steven (13 April 2016). "Tribeca: An 'art terrorist's' tangle with U.S. Embassy officials". Baltimore Sun. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  7. Battersby, Matilda (15 July 2015). "Meet the 'art terrorist' AK47 who stole Banksy's The Drinker to expose 'faeces' of modern art". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  8. "Artist who 'kidnapped' Banksy's The Drinker claims ownership ahead of Sotheby's sale". The Art Newspaper. 18 November 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
  9. Selvin, Claire (18 November 2019). "Artist Claims That Banksy Sculpture That Could Sell for $1.3 M. at Sotheby's Was Stolen From Him". ARTnews. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
  10. Brown, Mark (19 November 2019). "Sotheby's pulls 'stolen' Banksy sculpture The Drinker from auction". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
  11. "Banksy Sculpture Reimagines Rodin in Homage to 'The Thinker'". Sotheby’s. 12 November 2019. Archived from the original on 17 November 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
  13. "Emmanuel Okoro". Artsper. Retrieved 19 August 2023. 2015/16 Commission: Collabaration film with AK47 and Daylight Robbery LTD (Recreation of Banksy drinker) now the (Stinker) (Daylight Robbery)
  14. "'The Banksy Job': Tribeca Review". The Hollywood Reporter. 18 April 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
  15. "Why This Man Stole One Of Banksy's Prized Pieces, And Kept The Cone". 22 July 2015. Archived from the original on 20 December 2015. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  16. "Documentary Reveals Secrets of Banksy Heist - artnet News". 18 June 2015. Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  17. "Andy Link Linky aka AK47 attends The Banksy Job Premiere about the day a Banksy statue was snatched". imago-images.com. 12 June 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2023. Andy Link Linky aka AK47 attends The Banksy Job Premiere about the day a Banksy statue was snatched from London in broad daylight, The Prince Charles Cinema, London.
  18. "New film tells story of Yorkshire art dealer's feud with Banksy". yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk. 3 June 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
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