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Banksy's ‘Broken Heart' painting defaced on a Brooklyn wall is up for sale
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A slab of wall art, The "Battle to Survive a Broken Heart,' created by the artist Banksy, sits on display inside the Brookfield Place atrium, Tuesday, April 29, 2025, in New York. The nearly four-ton piece will be auctioned off on May 21. - photo by AP Photo/Julie Jacobson
NEW YORK (AP) — When the enigmatic street artist Banksy spray-painted a heart-shaped balloon covered with a Band-Aid on the wall of a Brooklyn warehouse, the nondescript brick building was instantly transformed into an art destination and the canvas of an unlikely graffiti battle. Almost as soon as Banksy revealed the piece back in 2013, an anonymous tagger brazenly walked up and spray painted the words “Omar NYC” in red beside the balloon, to the dismay of onlookers. Days later, someone stenciled “is a little girl” in white and pink beside Omar’s tag, followed by a seemingly sarcastic phrase in black: “I remember MY first tag.” Some think it was Banksy himself who secretly returned to the scene to add the rejoinder.