Cost, New York's Best Known Street Artist, Was Arrested in the Act
The graffiti artist COST—whose illegal black-and-white posters are inescapable in New York—was arrested Sunday in the Meatpacking District.
COST, according to a self-satisfied news release from the NYPD, was seen walking on West 13th Street with a wet brush on the end of a pole. The arresting officers—who had reportedly studied his appearance—said they found a fresh poster affixed to scaffolding above a wine shop, and arrested him for criminal mischief, making graffiti, and possession of a graffiti instrument.
The most conspicuous part of the story—highlighted by the NYPD in their release—is that the scrappy graffiti artist evidently drives a Porsche:
The lid for the drum of glue was next to Cole's Porsche Cayenne parked on the same Meatpacking District block, between 7th and 8th Avenues; additional drums and more long brushes could clearly be seen through the windows of the luxury SUV.
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A minutes-long surveillance tape outside one tagging location, Bar Naná on Gansevoort Street, shows Cole step out of his Porsche and get to work brushing on "Cost" posters with the very sticky wheat paste.
COST, also known as Adam Cost, first made his name in partnership with REVS, another artist, covering the city with wheat-pasted posters and paint-roller graffiti in the '90s. The pair went silent for a number of years after an arrest, but recently, COST began putting up work again with a new partner named ENX.
