Is Banksy headed west?

1/19

In this downtown Los Angeles mural, a young girl swings from the word “PARK,” formerly written as “PARKING.” Just down the block from this area, a downtown resident group is looking to find a little more than $6 million to transform a parking lot into a community park with a playground. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

2/19

“Kissing Coppers,” a life-size portrait of two policemen sharing a kiss, is one of Banksy’s most famous artworks. The piece was created in 2004 on the walls of a pub in Brighton, England. It was then carved from the wall and sold to an anonymous buyer in Miami for $575,000 in 2014. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

3/19

A visitor to Paris’ Drouot auction house looks at Banksy’s “Very Little Helps” prior to an October auction. The piece sold for about $7,200. (Thiabult Camus / Associated Press)

4/19

After a daylong hiatus “due to police activity,” Banksy stenciled an image of a man leaning on a wall, holding a batch of falling flowers. The creation went up on the side of the Hustler Club in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan. (John Moore / Getty Images)

5/19

This pop-up exhibition depicting the Occupy movement was a collaboration between Banksy and Brazilian twin street artists Os Gemeos. A Fox news report claimed Banksy paid $50,000 to hang his work from this property in New York, but Banksy said the space was donated by the owner. (Michael Loccisano / Getty Images)

6/19

As part of Banksy’s monthlong residency in New York, Banksy found clever use of a privately owned Brooklyn street scape. The artist drew the silhouettes of two kimono-clad women on a circular-like object, as if the pair were sitting on a bridge carrying parasols near a cherry blossom tree. (Justin Lane / EPA)

7/19

Banksy created a mini-tribute to the Twin Towers on the streets of Tribeca. The image portrays two buildings against the New York skyline, one accented with an orange chrysanthemum.
(Jason Szenes / EPA )

8/19

Trying art in motion, Banksy conceived a slaughterhouse delivery truck replete with squealing stuffed animals. The farmyard pigs and sheeps are on their way to death. (Andrew Gombert / EPA )

9/19

Seen through a fence in New York City, Banksy’s trio of stampeding horses wear night-vision goggles while a group of men kneel before them. A tape recording of a 2007 U.S. airstrike plays in the background, revealing the killing of two children and a Reuters journalist. (Andrew Burton / Getty Images)

10/19

Located across the street from the First Ukrainian Assembly of God, this piece is based on a 1950s image by photographer Berni Schoenfield, depicting a Jesuit priest at a Martyr’s Shrine. A portion of the original piece has been defaced by vandals. (Jason Szenes / EPA )

11/19

In this aerosol artwork spotted in Queens, New York, a man begins to scrub away the phrase “What we do in life echoes in Eternity” -- a quote picked up from the film “Gladiator.” (Jason Szenes / EPA)

12/19

Stenciled on the streets of New York, a dog is seen urinating on a fire hydrant, with a thought bubble reading “You Complete Me...” (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

13/19

In the the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, a heart-shaped helium balloon is covered in bandages. The piece was defaced with red spray paint shortly after being completed. Banksy has painted a famous heart-shaped balloon before in his 2012 London piece “Girl With a Balloon.” (Andrew Burton / Getty Images)

14/19

In this New York Lower East Side piece, Banksy added the words “The Musical” to existing graffiti that read “Playground Mob.” (Andrew Burton / Getty Images)

15/19

Banksy wrote the words “This is my New York accent” beneath a highly stylized “...normally I write like this.” Like several other pieces, this one was later vandalized by graffiti. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

16/19

Banksy’s graffiti mural “Love Is in the Air” illustrates a black and white masked protester about to throw a bouquet of colorful flowers. The piece was up for auction at Bonhams in London. (Justin Tallis / AFP / Getty Images)

17/19

“Flower Girl” is a 9-by-8 foot mural on brick, originally located at an LA gas station. The owner of that gas station cut out that section of the wall and brought it to an auction. The mural depicts a girl holding a basket of flowers as a security camera blossoms on top of its stem. ( Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images )

18/19

Seen in Bristol, England, this large piece portrays three police men approaching a teddy bear with a lit cocktail in his hand. For about nine years, the piece remained untouched but was then defaced with red paint. (Matt Cardy / Getty Images)

19/19

At the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Banksy premiered his film “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” about a man who desperately wanted to create a documentary on Banksy. During the fest in Park City, Utah, Banksy created an image of a filmmaker zooming in on a pink flower. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

By Deborah Vankin

Oct. 23, 2013 4:37 PM PT

“Better LA Than NYC”

Those words went up on Wednesday afternoon on a new, L.A.-dedicated website that looks like a spinoff of the Banksy website documenting the British street artist’s monthlong “residency” in New York.

Of course, like the fake Banksy Twitter account now followed by more than 36,000 people, this too could be a prank.

Banksy’s New York sojourn, “Better Out Than In,” is currently stalled “due to police activity,” his website said Wednesday morning.

PHOTOS: Art by Banksy

New York’s outgoing mayor, Michael Bloomberg, wasn’t very welcoming to the street artist during a news conference last week at the opening of a Central Park water tunnel. “I just think there are some places for art and there are some places [not for] art,” he said.

Residents of the South Bronx earlier this week complained about a Banksy mural, “Ghetto 4 Life,” that went up in the neighborhood.

But if the latest posting can be believed, the elusive street artist and urban prankster is heading west.

Target date? December.

Culture Monster will have ongoing updates.

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