For the 14th piece for his ‘Better Out Than In’ exhibit, Banksy scrawled a famous quote from Gladiator that reads “What we do in life echoes in Eternity” with the image of a man cleaning it off the wall.
The piece is on a corner at Woodside, Queens, where a crowd quickly gathered after the reveal.
Banksy defends his work on his website: “Some people criticize me for using sources that are a bit low brow (this quote is from 'Gladiator') but you know what? ‘I'm just going to use that hostility to make me stronger, not weaker’ as Kelly Rowland said on the X Factor”.
It was a matter of time before his work was defaced by a hooded man, who tagged the words ‘Problem Child NYC’.
[via Banksy, Gothamist and Gawker]