A couple of weeks out and looking back, all of the Academy’s concerns over what would happen if Banksy won an Oscar for his documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop were for naught (and/or publicity). And now all can go back to normal with the world, with us just referring to him as “the famous street artist” instead of “the famous, Oscar-winning street artist” (though we suppose people throw around “Oscar-nominated” just as often). But before letting the story ride off into the sunset, we turn to some news making the rounds last week, concerning the possibilities that Banksy himself was responding to the loss. The site Small World broke the story that a new, painted stenciling had appeared in England, depicting a small girl holding an Academy Award, looking glum. Many thought a) it was in reference to the video of The King’s Speech producer Simon Egan, which shows his infant daughter playing with and accidentally breaking his Oscar, and b) that it was Banky’s doing. Just before the weekend, the site Melrose & Fairfax responded to the story, determining that the “stencil of the girl holding an Oscar is most likely not a Banksy.” They point out a number of things that brought them to the conclusion; that the girl had already been used in a previous project, sans Oscar, the details are slightly different, and a supposedly “found” used stencil had shown up on eBay the week before the piece was discovered, selling for a hefty £500. So it might be real or it might not. Either way, we figure this finally marks the end of all the Oscar vs. Banksy talk, something we’re not entirely sad about.
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