Banks-on-Fire Paintings by Artist Alex Schaefer Inspire LAPD Concern: Now Collectors Willing to Pay Thousands

By Dennis Romero Wed., Sep. 7 2011 at 7:08 AM

Alex Schaeffer via eBay

Not the Bank of Arson, apparently.

An L.A. artist who has taken to portraying banks afire via oil paintings has been visited not once, but twice, by the LAPD, who asked him, according to the Los Angeles Times, if he "hates" banks and plans to act out his masterwork.

Well, maybe a interest by the boys and girls in blue is a Midas touch, because now the banks-ablaze paintings of Alex Schaefer, a 41-year-old from Eagle Rock, are going for big bucks on eBay.

In fact ...

... one of them is seeing bids of more than $10,000 on the auction site: This one (and you gotta love a title like "Chase Burning"):

Alex Schaeffer via eBay

'Chase Burning.'

Another such painting, "Bank of America," was going for $2,750 last night.

L.A. Taco notes the irony that "only people who can afford to buy his work are the same people who looted the financial system in the first place- bankers."

Schaeffer, by the way, told the Times that his works were inspired by the economic apocalypse that occurred when banks invested in crap real estate loans -- by institutions "bringing the system down. Some might say that the banks are the terrorists."

This here blog piece was inspired by L.A. Taco.

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]

Tags:

Alex Schaeffer, arson, art, artwork, Bank of America, banks, banks on fire, Chase, eBay, LAPD, paintings

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Dianecjay

It's Social Realism! A legitimate genre of fine art.

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I'm gonna print this out and stick on my room What a valuable post.Thank you very much.

zbeast

The cops show you to ask you about a painting.. Since when did bank building's rate the same level of scrutiny as let say someone saying the wanted to do something bad to a President.

It's just a painting, of a very stupid bank.

girdyerloins

Is it me, or are police becoming more, shall we say, intellectually challenged? What on earth made them think that, assuming he really did harbor secret desires to immolate financial institutions, he would tell them the truth, when they asked him so? Is this the reductio ad absurdum of the mentality that is denied an exposure to art in school, now that austerity immediately targets such culturally worthwhile pursuits???I'm not surprised that other countries view the US like it was a four-year-old running around with a loaded shotgun.Soooooooo....What happens when someone PAINTS an american flag on fire? Does the artist have to lie and say the flag touched the ground and that's why it's being burned?Oh, my aching head........

RokNoo

lol, stupid cops, go find some real criminals to harass!complete-privacy.es.tc

Guest

I hope that these banks get what they deserve!

Ana M

I am the high bidder on "Chase burning".. and i am not a banker. I am bidding simply cos i seriously believe the bankers have got it coming for what they did to the good hard working American people. I am a Brit btw!

whippersnapper

Oh shit, a bloody brit is outbidding me...wanker!

Hanna

no, I'm the high bidder!

xaderp

I AM TA HIH BIDDA

José

Love it. It would be great to see Koch Industries on fire.

mitchie124

Big difference. You need to wake up.

GardenGirl

@mitchie124: What big difference, is that, pray tell? Other than a Koch Industries fire would be putting all kinds of toxic shite into the air. They are just as reprehensible as the big banks, and in many more ways than just financial - bankrolling the Tea Party, pushing for industry deregulation so that they can trash the environment even faster, corrupting Congresspeople, Senators, and Supreme Court Justices like it's going out of style... They are just as much part of the problem as the banks, or even the whole FIRE* sector.

*Finance/Insurance/RealEstate (See what I did there?)