Four tourists in Central Park hit the art jackpot this weekend when they unknowingly snagged real artwork by Banksy, the British street artist.
The four tourists paid only $60 for his spray artwork on canvases that were worth up to $31,000, The New York Post reports.The tourists bought the canvases at a pop-up stall selling around 25-spray art canvases on Fifth Avenue near Central Park on Saturday.
The elusive graffiti artist is on a month-long "residency" in New York, and he promises that at least one new piece of art will pop up somewhere on New York streets each day. Banksy put out the news of the surprise Central Park sale on his website, writing, "Yesterday I set up a stall in the park selling 100 % authentic original signed Banksy canvases. For $60 each."
The man who sold the art was an elderly gentleman who went about four hours before he finally made a sale, resigning to eat lunch and watch people walk back and forth without looking twice at the black images spray painted on white canvases.
Two pieces finally sold at 3:30 p.m., but the buyer wanted a deal. "A lady buys two small canvases for her children, but only after negotiating a 50 percent discount," Banksy noted in the video.
A half hour later, a woman from New Zealand bought two more pieces, paying a total of $120. She even got a bonus: a kiss from the grateful art-seller.
Then around 5:30 p.m., a man from Chicago stopped at the stall, saying he needed some decoration for the bare walls in his new house.
"I just need something for the walls," he told the salesman. He bought four large canvases and got an added hug from the seller.
The Chicago sale was the last sale of the day. The pop-up gallery closed up shop around 6 p.m. Most of the pieces remained unsold. According to the BBC, the street-art pieces could be worth up to $31,000 each.
But don't get ready to rush around New York searching for more canvases spray painted with black images--Banksy said that it was a one-time stunt.
In a note posted to his website, the artist wrote: "Please note this was a one-off. The stall will not be there again."
Banksy has already showcased some art installations around NYC, including a slaughterhouse delivery truck filled with stuffed animals that drove around the Meatpacking District, a beaver stenciled into a Brooklyn wall, a concrete "confessional" of sorts on cement slabs in Manhattan and images of war horses with goggles behind a chain link fence on Ludlow Street.
Watch the video of the Banksy art sale in Central Park below.