Security Footage Shows 60-Foot Kenny Scharf Mural Being Stolen, Again
A 60-foot-long mural by street artist Kenny Scharf has been stolen from the East River Esplanade in Harlem for the second time — but at least this time the heist was captured on camera.
A 60-foot-long mural by street artist Kenny Scharf has been stolen from the East River Esplanade in Harlem for the second time — but at least this time the heist was captured on camera. The black, white, yellow, and purple vinyl banner artwork, “NEVERENDINGOGO” (2016), was first installed along the East River near 116th Street and FDR Drive on June 22 only to be stolen a few days later. A second copy was printed at a cost of $2,000 and installed in early July by Friends of the East River Esplanade, who had commissioned Scharf to create the work. Intended to remain on view through the end of September, the second “NEVERENDINGOGO” was taken on August 20, as newly released security footage shows.
The short video, released by the NYPD and posted online by Gothamist, shows a bearded young fan of “NEVERENDINGOGO” committing a never-ending no-no. The suspect, wearing black shorts and a tie-dye T-shirt — initially with his head concealed under the vast vinyl banner — is seen gathering up the artwork and beginning to walk away from the site. According to the NYPD, he then “placed it in a small sport utility vehicle and fled northbound on the FDR Drive.” (Anyone with information about this crime is encouraged to contact the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA.)
Despite the thief’s casual demeanor in the short security footage clip, the heist must have demanded some serious effort. The second banner had been fastened with “dozens of galvanized steel ties,” Friends of the East River Esplanade member Jennifer Ratner told DNAinfo in July, as well as grommets every 18 inches along its 60-foot span and additional, unspecified security measures. The organization does not plan to create a third version of the mural. “We tried really hard, but I can’t say we will do it again,” Ratner told the Harlem Patch.
“The whole thing is mystifying to me because I don’t understand what he could be doing with the vinyl piece,” Scharf told Hyperallergic over email.
Usually I do public art on a wall or surface that can’t be taken and that is actual painting, but this was only a printout not original art so there’s not much of a value for it monetarily. Whenever doing art in a public space there’s always the risk of theft or vandalism. In this case it was kind of flattering in a funny way, but also takes the pleasure away from all the motorists driving up the FDR.
Though Scharf’s second East River Esplanade banner is gone, a work he created alongside it — “TotemOh,” a stack of smiling characters painted onto a stone column — remains.
