Many Park City visitors over the past 14 years have left with a free souvenir: a picture of themselves with the famous Banksy artwork on the side of the Java Cow building along Main Street.
The popular coffee and ice cream shop, recognizing the continuing interest in the work, recently began selling Banksy souvenirs. Java Cow created several goods emblazoned with the image of the piece, satisfying the desire of the fans as well as creating a revenue stream years after the business began spending money to preserve the work.
Java Cow put the Banksy image of a kneeling videographer on T-shirts, sweatshirts and a postcard. The T-shirts and sweatshirts are faded yellow in color, nearly matching the tone of the exterior of the building.
“It’s something people have asked for. ‘Do you have anything?'” Java Cow owner Ken Davis said this week about customer inquiries over the years about souvenirs featuring the Banksy image.
He said people have been purchasing the goods with the Banksy images, but they are “not the fastest-selling items.” The shop also sells numerous items with its own logos.
The Banksy at Java Cow and a series of others created by the internationally renowned graffiti artist appeared in early 2010, in the days before the Sundance Film Festival that year. The festival included a documentary centered on Banksy, called “Exit Through the Gift Shop.”
The arrival of Banksy created a stir just before the festival and then through the run of Sundance as the crowds buzzed when each work was discovered. The piece at Java Cow, with its high-traffic location, quickly became the most famous.
The Banksy at Java Cow, though, also became a target of vandals soon after it was created. Davis removed the tagging by the vandals the best he could before he eventually put the work behind a large frame, created by a blacksmith, and 1/2-inch thick non-glare glass in 2011. Davis at the time anticipated the piece would have been destroyed eventually if it had not been protected.
Davis this week said sales of the souvenirs with the image of the Banksy work could help Java Cow recoup some of the money he’s spent protecting the piece. The frame, the protective glass and maintenance have cost upward of $15,000, he estimated.
The 2024 edition of Sundance ends on Sunday. People have regularly been seen taking photographs of the Banksy at Java Cow during the festival.