Banksy: Wrong War Cardboards
Banksy created a number of different signs for the 2003 London protest against the Iraq War but few originals have survived because they were either discarded in the street or confiscated by the Metropolitan Police.
There is no way to tell but there were very few ever made for the protests to begin with. The Studio gave out the Cardboards to friends of the artist who were going on the Anti War March in 2003 to create a viral presence on the march. The Bomb Hugger girl was carried by Gary Stevens on the anti war demonstration, and the other two examples, Happy Chopper and the Grin Reaper by friends of Banksy. They came back to the studio afterwards.
Pest Control, which is responsible for authenticating works by Banksy, does not issue a certificate of authentication for work deemed as “street-art”. The set of three cardboards featuring Bomb Hugger, Happy Chopper (Yellow) and Grin Reaper is accompanied by a written communication from Pest Control where we can see that they are coming from the studio of the artist. It is one of those rare occasions when you can genuinely call a picture iconic, the fact that this image is on a rather fragile piece of cardboard just adds to it.
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