“And like that, poof, he’s gone.” I am inclined to think that Otter was not in fact behind it this time. It’s a good thing that everybody and their brother already photographed this to death, because now it’s really dead. Alas, no one had the foresight to put up a sign in Cantonese warning that this art is “very hard to get it.”
Anyone know the story behind this Banksy whitewashing? Any of the other Bansky pieces throughout the city suffer a similar fate?
UPDATE!!! An anonymous commenter seems to have the scoop:
The building owner lives in Texas and received a notice from the city. Not knowing the significance of the piece, or what it was, he had it painted over. The owners of The Curiosity Shoppe live in the building and were obviously unable to convince him to keep it.
Yikes! However, this is the kind of thing that happens when you have an out of state absentee property owner who doesn’t seem to know or care about the culture of the area in which his property resides.
Also, I was able to get a free Chinese language lesson out of this too. Apparently, Cantonese and Mandarin refer only to spoken language, whereas written language is always known vaguely as Chinese. So, even though most of the residents of Chinatown happen to be Cantonese speakers, that sign was nonetheless written in Chinese. Case closed!
Previously:
San Francisco Has Banksy Fever!
Mission Mission 
Larger issue: the sides of most multi-story buildings on Valencia St are filthy and hideous. All but the most trivial graffiti improves them.
I went out to Alcatraz, and the rat had been rubbed off, though it was still peeking through enough that I could tell it had been there. The sign-holding Indian was pretty well tagged over when we happened upon it. The Chinatown Banksy is now under plexiglass, which I thought was interesting.
It’s possible, unfortunately, that the property owner was cited by the City already and required to remove it (or face a lengthy dispute process that makes you want to knock your head against a brick wall). They really don’t kid around, I’m a property manager and the minute we have a bit of spray point we get a notice mailed and posted. It’s a bitch. I’ve had to be responsible for removing some really cool pieces and I *hate* that — though mostly it’s shitty tagging that is super annoying since it costs a bucket load of $$ and wastes a bunch of peoples time.
Anon @ 3:30 is correct. The building owner lives in Texas and received a notice from the city. Not knowing the significance of the piece, or what it was, he had it painted over. The owners of The Curiosity Shoppe live in the building and were obviously unable to convince him to keep it.
I managed to snag 38 full frame shots of the Alcatraz one the day before it was rubbed.
The one at pier 43 was painted over, but it may still have some traction; there have been some missives….
I scored plenty of shots of the North Beach one, but that was over a week ago; don’t know the current status.
sorry to see this is gone
According to this article, it’s just San Francisco being San Francisco: http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_15040400
What is the exact difference between anterograde and retrograde amnesia?