Banksy Criticizes World Trade Center Tower, Gets Show Cancelled by Century 21

Century 21 canceled a planned Banksy exhibit after the enigmatic street artist made controversial comments about the new World Trade Center tower. 

The clothing emporium barred Banksy, the famous masked graffiti artist, after he disparaged the design of 1 World Trade Center as a "disaster" that "looks like something they would build in Canada," The New York Daily News confirms. 

"Due to the recent controversial comments from Banksy on WTC, C21 has just decided to cancel the exhibit," store spokeswoman Lindsey Kopp emailed Monday. "Sorry for the last-minute notice."

The store was going to showcase Banksy's artwork at its flagship store this Tuesday through Nov. 6. 

The owners of Century 21 are disconcerted by Banksy's comments because the store sits across the street from the WTC site and was damaged during the 9/11 attacks. When Century 21 opened in March 2002, it was used as proof that downtown NYC was coming back from the ruins of disaster. 

There was not an immediate response from Banksy, but some expect him to go after the store in the form of graffiti art. 

After the New York Times passed on publishing his comments about 1 World Trade Center, which he posted Sunday on his web site, Banksy took aim at the NYT via art on the side of a building in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn. 

"This site contains blocked messages," a white stenciled graffiti on a gray brick wall at Noble and West Sts. said. 

The British graffiti artist was very popular in New York, where he is having a "residency," until he made the comments about the tower, calling it the "shyscraper."

"It would be easy to view One World Trade Centre as a betrayal of everyone who lost their lives on September 11th, because it so clearly proclaims the terrorists won," he wrote on his website.

"You currently have under construction a one thousand foot tall sign that reads - New York - we lost our nerve," he wrote.

"The attacks of September 11th were an attack on all of us and we will live our lives in their shadow. But it's also how we react to adversity that defines us. And the response? 104 floors of compromise?" he added. 

Family members who lost loved ones on Sept. 11 were irate. 

"He's insulting to everybody in New York, especially people that died that day," said retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches, who lost his firefighter son, Jimmy, in the attacks.

One World Trade Center is located at the northwest corner of the 16-acre site, and has a spire that will reach the symbolic height of 1,776 feet when it's completed next year. 

It is not the first time Banksy referenced the September 11 attacks. He recently drew an outline on the side of a building of the New York skyline with the World Trade Center and an orange silk daisy where the planes hit on 9/11.