Banksy Has Left the Building!
Robotic 2013 artwork by the mysterious British artist has been sold and removed from its Coney Island location
Building owner Richard Aiello and Charles Denson visiting the Banksy robot in 2019.
Coney Island recently lost its most famous but mysterious artwork when the owners of the building it was painted on sold the artwork and the brick wall it was attached to.
It brought back memories of a humid summer day in 2019 when the building owners, Richard and Wendy, visited the Coney Island History Project and offered to give me a private showing of the hidden Banksy artwork.
Banksy painted the robot in secret in the dead of night on the side of a building on Stillwell Avenue. After its existence was revealed in 2013, it attracted Banksy fans from all over the world who came to view and photograph the piece before it was covered up behind a roll-down metal gate to protect it from vandalism.
Richard and Wendy reveal the Banksy! Video by Charles Denson
In December 2025 the building was shored up with steel framing and the brick wall backing the artwork was secured and jackhammered out in one piece. Then it was loaded onto a flatbed truck and shipped to a new home in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
The top price ever paid for a Banksy piece was a reported $25 million, although smaller pieces have sold for less.
Stillwell Avenue has attracted artists in the past and once had an enormous mural by the famous Brazilian artists Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo, the twins known as “os gemêos.” Their 2005 piece deteriorated and was painted over several years ago. Thankfully, the Banksy did not meet the same fate.
Below: The Banksy being removed by Fine Art Shippers. Credit: https://www.facebook.com/fineartshippers/reels/