Halloween Costume Ideas for Art Historians: From Sexy Beast Jesus to Spooky Shredded Banksy

Yes, it’s time for the art world to take on the haunted holiday, and we have some costume suggestions for you to wow the crowd. Consider the annual Halloween parade thrown by Japan’s Kawasaki city, which this year saw a series of iconic paintings troop around in stockings and heels, including Van Gogh’s self-portrait, the Mona Lisa, The Scream – and, of course, the latest addition to art history’s greats, Beast Jesus (the Spanish botched amateur art restoration which went viral in 2012, in case you were lucky enough to miss out the first time).

Others are trying out something more topical, with wearable versions of Banksy’s shredded Girl with Balloon, after the street artist’s self-destructing prank at Sotheby’s earlier this month. Finally, a costume for those who want to stand up to the spectacle art market, while raking in the millions.

And for the partygoers who favour something more cerebral, Takashi Murakami has shared his personal homage to the oversized, rectangular bodysuits seen in Kanye West and Lil Pump’s ‘I Love It’ music video, complete with Yeezy Slides. Murakami gushed about the experience of watching the video ‘as through I was served a fresh platter of ego sashimi […] I don’t even know what I’m talking about, but all I can do is to bow down to it! And so I did this cosplay in my studio.’

Meanwhile, drug dealers have taken to dressing up as art dealers in a bid to ship 11.7 kilograms of meth to Hawaii – federal authorities recently busted a crew of smugglers who are now accused of disguising Methamphetamine as precious Aztec artefacts – including a replica of a 500-year-old Aztec calendar stone. Happy Halloween!