Will at SixSquare.com writes about the recent wholesale thefts of Space Invaders pieces in Los Angeles. He writes movingly of becoming obsessed with and attached to a particular artist’s creation — and then being shocked and hurt by the art’s sudden destruction — in a way that I strongly identified with. One of the great things about being a street art hunter is the way you can be constantly surprised by your city. Invisible strangers plant presents for no one, and you get to stumble across these gifts, witness them, and leave them behind for others to discover too.
Anyway, the story was picked up by art.blogging.la, where the Invader himself chimed in:

STOP THE SLAUGHTER!
I’ve just learned that in the last few weeks many of the space invaders in the streets of Los Angeles have been removed. I have good reason to think that this is the work of an individual and not done by the city. I would like to ask the person who is doing this to stop for two main reasons :
1– that is very selfish act to steal art that is supposed to be free and for everybody.
2- that is ridiculous. The tiles are not signed then they have no value. You can go and buy some in any tiles shop (like “Opiocolor” in beverly hills where I bought them ) they will be the same but not broken.

This obviously harkens back to the theft/destruction of Revs’ sculptures this spring. A related story: Once I was working with an artist friend and a bypasser stopped and told us that she was an art collector, and regularly went around removing art from the street and taking it home — in order to “preserve” it — and had taken down a few of my friend’s pieces. I knew people did this, but I was horrified anyway. I wanted to say: We put art up, and you take it down. That makes us enemies, not friends.
Read the whole article article on the Invader thefts here. Found via art.blogging.la, via Wooster. Check out Invader’s site, and photos of him at work here. Photo at top from SixSquare.