The Drinker (Banksy)

The Drinker is a statue by graffiti artist Banksy, not to be confused with the stencil of the same name, a graffiti artwork of a rat drinking a cocktail, on a wall at North Beach, Lowestoft, England.

History
In 2004, the statue was placed, in a small square at Princes Circus, on Shaftesbury Avenue, between New Oxford Street and High Holborn, central London. It is a subversive comment using The Thinker by Auguste Rodin.

In March 2004, The Drinker was stolen by "art terrorist", football hooligan Andy Link, a former porn star, with an arrest record, and a record of drug charges, (also known as AK47).

Around a year after Link took The Drinker, Link says he registered "the lost and found item" with police, and contacted Banksy, asking for £5,000, or an original canvas, "to cover costs".

In 2007, three years after Link stole it, the sculpture was taken from Link's garden, while he was away.

In December 2015, Link re-installed, as "The Stinker", "an imitation of Banksy’s sculpture" "The Drinker", modified with a toilet seat, cistern, and graffiti, in central London.

"The Stinker" (2015) was a commissioned work from sculptor Emmanuel Okoro.

The 2016 crowdfunded documentary (with "dream-reenactment sequence", "amusing artifice" ) film The Banksy Job is about Andy Link and the work.