For one day only (this past Saturday), New York street artist Hanksy and more than 40 artists from Los Angeles and New York opened a derelict mansion in West Adams to the public for an art show called Surplus Candy LA. The artists worked for the week prior to the opening to fill pretty much every surface with new pieces, says a tipster's email, totally transforming the house in the process and managing to miraculously attract attention away from the gnarly teal carpet that runs through many rooms of what was once, presumably, a grand mansion.
Anyone who happened to pass through the event and fall in love with Surplus Candy LA's disaster house—built in 1911—will be pleased to know it's up for sale for $900,000. Back in 2013, it was being bundled for sale (for a total of $2.45 million) with the house next door, the historic yet "uninhabitable" Beckett Residence (aka Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #117), built for Dr. Wesley Beckett, once a member of the board of trustees at USC. (That house is in much better shape than the one in which the art show took place, though that's not saying a lot.) Now it seems the two are still available together, with the owners holding firm on that pricetag. But beware, investors: Hanksy warned Los Angeles magazine that the Surplus Candy mansion is "basically Money Pit IRL."
An abandoned mansion turned into an art gallery for one night. Pure magic #hanksy pic.twitter.com/oyVeCFHlAX
— Franki Elliot (@frankielliot) October 11, 2015
Defacing History http://t.co/t76mryHbdd #mydayinLA #preservation @WestAdamsHA @LAConservancy #surpluscandy #hanksy pic.twitter.com/wKuTWHWA7u
— Avoiding Regret (@avoidingregret) October 11, 2015
· Uninhabitable Historic Beckett Residence in Adams-Normandie [Curbed LA]
· 2200 South Harvard, Los Angeles, CA 90018 [Redfin]