A duo of vandals seized a dozen mosaics of the street artist Invader in broad daylight.
Who are the smart guys, wearing a fluorescent yellow vest, flanked by a large ladder and rolling in Mercedes “who pretend to be agents of the City of Paris” and come to pick up in daylight the works of the street artist Invader?
The question stirred Twitter. Some Parisians, believing that the City was at the origin of this initiative, were offended. Pierre, twists, adds: “2 possibilities: it is about residents who asked to remove it, or they are thieves.” The controversy went back to Jerome Comet, the mayor (PS) of the thirteenth, who knows the artist well and whose works are particularly present in the borough, as well as at the Hotel de Ville.
For several days, this funny crew has been seen attacking the famous mosaics that bloom on the walls of Paris, representing the little guys “Space Invaders” inspired by the video game of 1978. And who can resell expensive… The procedure is peculiar: one of the false agents in yellow reflective vest, perched on a ladder, seeks to take off the work, the other, down, eventually answering the questions of passers-by, like “We are from the City”! When their job is over, the duo goes back to Mercedes!
“At no time was it asked to remove these works”
“At no time was it asked to remove these works,” said one of the spokesmen of the Paris City Hall yesterday, who says on the contrary “in total support to Invader” . The pseudo agents in fluorescent vest have also by the look of the agents of the DPE (Directorate of cleanliness and water) who dressed in green, ensure the cleanliness and maintenance of public space.
“These flights are a problem, regrets Jerome Comet. Moreover, boulevard Saint-Germaine, at the level of Odeon, a condominium, proud to have on its wall a mosaic of the artist, protected it by putting a glass anti-theft! In Paris, many of these works on the walls are incomplete. People are trying to take off without success. The artist, who cannot complain because he sticks his mosaics at night, masked and most of the time without permission, uses, by design, glues more and more powerful!