WILLETS POINT — The latest Banksy art installation, a Sphinx-like sculpture made of crushed cinderblocks, was loaded into a removal truck and driven away less than a day after it appeared in Queens, witnesses told DNAinfo New York.
Witnesses said three men came with a truck to the location at 127th Street and 35th Avenue in Willets Point at around 4 p.m. on Oct. 22, and disassembled the piece.
"Three guys said they saw when it was being built and stuck around," said Nicole Marte, 24.
"They said they don't want of make money off it, they just want to preserve it."
Marte and her friend, Melissa Serrano, 22, took a piece of brick found near the sculpture as a souvenir.
Paul Marco, 26, captured video of the sculpture being carried into the van. He said the men told the crowd they were the owners of the location and would display it elsewhere.
Art fans hopping off the 7 train, many coming right after work, were disappointed to find they'd already missed the sculpture.
"I missed it?" asked Gina Fonseca, 41, who lives on the Upper West Side and came from her insurance job on Wall Street as soon as she could.
"This is sad."
As for the art itself, Marco speculated that Banksy's art work was meant as a message about the industrial area slates for redevelopment.
"Everything Banksy does is a message," he said. "Or maybe he's a Mets fan."
A NYPD spokesman said he had no information about the missing artwork.
