Murakami takes graffitied Murakami billboard

In December, graffiti writers AUGER and REVOK modified a billboard advertising the wonderful Takashi Murakami exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Two days later, the billboard was removed. The LA Weekly now reports that Murakami himself saw online photos of the graffitied billboard and thought it to be "so wonderful, he had to have it for his collection," according to his representatives. So apparently he had it taken down and shipped to his studio in Japan. Link to LA Weekly, Link to LA MOCA's Murakami page

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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todayinart

Does anyone know where a larger version of the image might be? I would love to get a better look at the work.
Santa’s Knee

You co-opt my stuff and I’ll co-opt yours. Nice!
nigelfootpowder

Did Murakami pay those guys for their work?
Takuan

they gave it away
Rajio

Well played Murakami. Well played.
Spikeles

Here is some other photos from the the guy(s) who did it.

http://www.revok1.com/pages/EXTERIOR_PAGES_00'/00-274.html
Songe

He pays the people who make his paintings about nine bucks an hour.
dculberson

Nigel, in my book he “paid” them by not bringing legal charges against them.

The graffiti is pretty, though! (Graffito is? Graffiti are? Oh, never mind…)
Mim

#8 – I’ve camped with people who reuse billboard vinyl as triangular flaps to cover each triangular section of a large dome. That vinyl will stand up to about 3 or 4 years of 51 weeks of storage, and 1 week/year of intense sun and corrosive dust. After that, it tears easily, warps, and generally becomes unusable. I therefore question whether it would be worth shipping it to refugees… unless they used it as a water-proofing layer under another layer to keep it shaded from the sun.
Patrick Dodds

Nice story – I like the graffiti too.
Not a Doktor

Billboards are typically printed on HUGE single sheets of vinyl. You can’t recycle it (yet) so after a billboard is done with they roll it up an store it in a warehouse.

(my green solution is send it to refugee areas so they can use it a as water proof tents, clothes, etc.)
addictivepicasso

this story is hilarious. layer upon layer of art as commodity.
weston

Swindle has a great interview with him http://swindlemagazine.com/issueicons2/takashi-murakami/
snackcake

“(my green solution is send it to refugee areas so they can use it a as water proof tents, clothes, etc.)”

– Sounds like a scene from a William Gibson book.