UNLIKELY OUTLETS: Is Banksy's Next Pop-Up Shop On HauteLook?

All month, New Yorkers have been hearing about Banksy, the anonymous graffiti artist who has descended upon New York City for a monthlong "residency" that has his followers scrambling all over the city to see his latest works, announced on a special photoblog, for as long as they might last wherever he chooses to paint them. A couple of weeks ago, he quietly arranged, with no advance notice, a table in Central Park to sell small signed canvases for the bargain price of $60 each (portable pieces regularly go for thousands in more rarefied galleries) which was gone by the time most people heard about it having only sold a few pieces to savvy passersby. This week, buried in the listings for upcoming flash sales on HauteLook.com, we discovered one sale titled Banksy: The Elusive Street Artist which starts today at 1 PM Pacific Time (that's 4 PM on the East Coast). HauteLook's description reads:

Who is Banksy? While the elusive street artist may never reveal the answer, we get more than a glimpse of the man behind the graffiti through his art. The pseudonymous artist offers his take on myriad topics—from politics to pop culture—through bold stencil-style works charged with dark wit. This array features some of his most thought-provoking pieces, all turned into ready-to-hang canvas prints.

Are these more official Banksy works for sale in an unlikely place? HauteLook is more known for off-price fashion than underground street art, and the preview photos (pictured above) remove the artist's designs from their gritty settings and place them in tidy bourgeois interiors. Is this one more piece of the artist's residency as it reaches its final days, or has the sale site found a way to jump on the Banksy publicity bandwagon that has been rolling through the month of October, or both? We may find out more later today. Stay tuned...

HauteLook (Official Site)
Better Out Than In (Official Banksy Photoblog)