Banksy tries harder to not get caught. Also, more people like him because his images have clear political statements. Maybe I'm missing something big, but looking at that big-nosed thing, all I see is a cartoonish figure. I'm not saying I want them jailed, but there really is a difference.

Art or not it is vandalism and they should be punished severely. Recently here in NYC four brats tagged the old murals in Central Park near the Bethesda fountain to the tune of about 100K. Sad part is they had just recently cleaned and restored them. Put your work on a canvas if you must spray paint something, there
are plenty of dopes that will buy it if you call it art.

Art doesn't need a buyer, and it doesn't need permission. The urge to leave our mark on the world is one of the strongest human characteristics we have, dating all the way back to the stone age when someone realized that hand prints on a wall were an expression of the self.

When Napoleon's army reached the pyramids, they left graffiti on them, and now it's considered a historical documentation of the past. Tell me with a straight face that a blank wall is better than a colorful one, that silence is better than a hundred voices speaking, that art is only what you can put in a museum or sell to some rich slob.

Someone painted those murals in the first place. Why is their paint any more important than the kids who tagged them? Why are the newer voices ignorable, when they are as much a part of the history that encompasses us all as the Sistine Chapel or the Last Supper?

You are surely not comparing grafitti to great works of art like the Sistine Chapel or the writings on the Pyramids? There are laws against vandalism today that certainly were not in place during Napolean's time. I can tell you with a straight face that there is a HUGE difference between a mural that was commissioned many years ago and that of four troublesome kids with too much time and spray paint on their hands. I would prefer a blank wall anyday over one covered with gang member tags or cartoon characters.

Graffiti is destruction of property, simple as that. Buy a fuckin canvas.

sigh.

tagging is art with an inherent criminal element. some art vandals make art that overcomes law. others dont.

deal with it.

i remember getting a serious tongue lashing (in art school in the 80's no less!) because i told my professor i thought graffiti was art. i still think much of it is–art is in the eye of the beholder–but i've revised my thinking about the boundaries of it. how awesome would it be to hire/allow/encourage these young artists to tag run down depressed areas and buildings? energize areas that need a little love.

Gotta love people who think that destruction of property is just fine.

Banksey deserves to be prosecuted just as much as this couple. I don't care how politically charged his work is, he and other grafitti artists are destroying other people's property, pure and simple.

I agree with Chris, get a fucking canvas.

Hahah thats kinda funny… i like it…