Peckham Rock
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Peckham Rock, also called Wall Art, is a 2005 artwork by British street artist Banksy, in the form of a lump of concrete decorated in the style of a cave painting and depicting "a supposed prehistoric figure pushing a shopping trolley".{{r|bbc}} It was originally displayed in the British Museum, without the knowledge of the museum staff, after being installed there by Banksy.
Original installation
Peckham Rock is a piece of concrete, approximately 15 cm × 25 cm, supposedly sourced from Peckham but actually from Hackney.{{r|pyne}} It depicts a buffalo, pierced by arrows, and a "lumbering hominin-like figure" pushing a shopping trolley.{{r|pyne}}
In a 2005 art intervention, Banksy clandestinely attached the rock to a wall in the "Roman Britain" collection of the British Museum, with a placard in the style of the museum with the title "Wall art" that dated the piece to the "post catatonic era" and credited it to a little-known artist named "Banksymus Maximus".{{r|pyne|dickens}}
The work went undiscovered for "several days",{{r|telegraph}} with later sources giving more specific but inconsistent amounts of time ranging from "three days",{{r|bbc|pyne}} to "weeks".{{r|nyt}} It was not the first such installation by Banksy; in 2003, he similarly hung a painting in the Tate,{{r|kerching}} and earlier in 2005, he installed a fake beetle in the American Museum of Natural History in New York.{{r|pyne}}
Subsequent exhibits
After Peckham Rock was removed from the British Museum's walls, it was re-exhibited in 2005 at the Outside Institute in London, listed as on loan from Banksy and the British Museum.{{r|dickens}}
Banksy stated that he did not intend to retrieve Peckham Rock, and the British Museum wrote at the time that they were accepting it "as a donation to its collections".{{r|dickens}} However, it was eventually labelled as "lost property" and returned to Banksy.{{r|pyne}} The only Banksy work actually in the museum's permanent collection is a counterfeit ten-pound note featuring Princess Diana.{{r|kerching}}
Peckham Rock returned to public display in the British Museum in 2018, on loan from Banksy, for an exhibit on protest art titled "I object".{{r|bbc|nyt}}
See also
References
{{reflist|refs=
| last = Dickens | first = Luke
| date = October 2008
| doi = 10.1177/1474474008094317
| issue = 4
| journal = Cultural Geographies
| pages = 471–496
| title = Placing post-graffiti: the journey of the Peckham Rock
| volume = 15| bibcode = 2008CuGeo..15..471D
| s2cid = 144852084
| url = http://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/23225
}}
}}
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Category:Performance art in London