“Today’s piece was going to be an op-ed column in the New York Times,”writes Banksy on his website. “But they declined to publish what I supplied. Which was this…” The op-ed, which he then mocked up to look like the Times, is critical of the new One World Trade Center building and is tied to the reveal of today’s public art in Greenpoint, located on Noble Street right off West Street. “This contains blocked messages,” reads the white painted letters on the wall, making his point all the more ironic… and meta. UPDATE: The NYT confirmed the submission. “He did submit an op-ed and art,” said spokesperson Eileen Murphy. “We couldn’t agree on either the piece or the art, so we rejected it.”

“The biggest eyesore in New York is not the graffiti, argues Banksy, it’s under construction at ground zero,” screams the headline. And then this apt architectural commentary:

That building is a disaster. Well no, disasters are interesting. One World Trade centre [sic British] is a non-event. It’s vanilla. It looks like something they would build in Canada.

Here’s the rest of op-ed Banksy claims the Grey Lady rejected:



He’s got a point. There’s no replacing the Twin Towers.

UPDATE 2 (10/28): ANIMAL’s Krystyna Printup reports the Greenpoint piece has been buffed.

(Photos: Aymann Ismail/ANIMALNewYork, Buffed photo: Krystyna Printup/ANIMALNewYork)