So Amedee had the Simpsons stencil protected by plywood panels. Soon, it was largely forgotten by the public.
Businessmen face tough odds
Amedee, a 7th Ward native, owned the whole block of St. Bernard Avenue where the mural lay hidden. His dream was to convert the mostly empty land into a lavish music hall, plus a restaurant, a members-only club, a digital recording studio and retail spaces.
But the going was tough, money was tight, and despite years of trying, the project never got off the ground.
At about the same time, Amedee’s pal Sean Meenan, a New York City-born restaurateur, set out to open a casual Cuban restaurant in an old pharmacy and filling station on Esplanade Avenue at the edge of the French Quarter.
An outcry among some residents of the area, and a subsequent lawsuit, delayed the opening of the restaurant for years.
Amedee and Meenan’s friendship deepened as they commiserated over their stalled projects. Amedee said he considers Meenan a brother.
The gift of art
Meenan has a lifelong passion for the Manhattan graffiti artists who rose to stardom in the 1980s, such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and others. He is, of course, also a great fan of Banksy.
So, in 2018, Amadee had the mural and the 9-by-15-foot slab of cement block that holds it cut from the wall of his building, then turned it over to Meenan.
Yes, Amedee said, he knows that Banksy paintings fetch fortunes at auction houses, but he felt the artwork belonged in the city where it was created, in the hands of someone who really appreciated it.
“I said, ‘Sean, you know, if you want it, man, you can have it,’” Amedee recalled.
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