Dave Eggers reveals Banksy mural on McSweeney's building was painted over within a week

What was said

"He did this really cool mural sort of, or, you know, I don't know what you call it, but anyway, picture on the side of the, what he would consider the roof or this wall on our roof, but we have a flat roof and he did it there. And we were so happy. We wake up, we see it. People were stopping on the street for a week in the middle of traffic. It was a big deal. Everybody knew that he'd done it. It was before social media though. So it was like just word of mouth. And then one day we wake up and it's gone. And we realized it was on the building next to us. So our roof is flat, but then there's an apartment building next to us. And they painted over it."

Author and publisher Dave Eggers disclosed that Banksy secretly contacted McSweeney's to create a mural on their San Francisco building at midnight. The artwork drew crowds stopping traffic for a week, but was inadvertently painted over by the adjacent apartment building's owner who didn't realize the cultural significance. Eggers notes they don't even have a picture of it anymore and calls the loss tragic.