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# Artist Replicates Missing Penis, Puts His Package On Display
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/artist-replicates-missing-penis-puts-his-package-on-display/
- Published: 2010-11-18T21:00:47.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:19:39.000Z
- Description: Mark Billy's penis once got stolen, but that didn't bother the intrepid artist. After the sculpture went missing, Billy just made a new one! The replica is on display at #TheSocialGraph, and this time, Billy used some extra protection.
- Author: Kyle Chayka
- Tags: Opinion, #image-position-hidden, TheSocialGraph, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2010/11/markbilly_large.jpg)

Mark Billy, “Replica: Don't Touch Mark Billy” (2010) (installation view, #TheSocialGraph)

[Mark Billy](http://markbilly.net/?ref=hyperallergic.com)‘s penis once got stolen, but that didn’t bother the intrepid artist. He just made a new one! After installing his resin and beard hair sculpture penises, called “Don’t Touch Mark Billy,” at the X-Initiative’s [Bring Your Own Art](http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/x-initiative-goes-out-with-a-byoa-art-that-is/?ref=hyperallergic.com) exhibition, one of Billy’s four penises went missing. A Craigslist ad created by the artist called for the return of the lost penis sculpture, but to no avail: the organ was never found. This time, Billy used some extra protection.

But the mystery did attract media attention. Billy’s Craigslist ad got picked up by [Gothamist](http://gothamist.com/2010/03/02/penis%5Fart.php?ref=hyperallergic.com) and found its way to [Artnet](http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/davis/bring-your-own-art2-19-10%5Fdetail.asp?picnum=18&ref=hyperallergic.com), eventually netting over 35,000 hits in a social media frenzy. It could be said that Billy’s penis went viral, but in a good way.

Version 2.0 of the sculpture, “Replica: Don’t Touch Mark Billy” (2010) is on display at Hyperallergic’s [#TheSocialGraph](http://hyperallergic.com/thesocialgraph/). Now the penis sculpture is enclosed in pop-open plastic packaging, like a product in no convenience store I’ve ever seen before. The artist says the replica sculpture still attracts attention though. Another theft was attempted in a bar, though Billy was able to spot his work in the thief’s purse before it was spirited away.