Said building owner Nate Comte, quoted in "Cookie Monster Mural Puzzles Artist and Enrages Property Owner/A man claiming to be a property owner in Peoria, Ill., wanted a Soviet-style mural of Cookie Monster. The artist who did the job now says he was tricked (and paid) by an impostor" (NYT). 

[The artist, Joshua] Hawkins, who apologized to Mr. Comte on his Facebook page, said he was still trying to figure out the real identity of the man who hired him, whom he described as tall, fit and in his 40s....“He knew [Comte's] building, he knew his name and he knew he wasn’t there,” Mr. Hawkins said. Around Peoria, a riverfront city of about 110,000 people in central Illinois, the episode has spawned an untold number of theories about who might have commissioned the mural....

Mr. Hawkins asked [the person who hired him] what the Russian words meant and the man replied, “Peace, land, cookies.” “I thought he was opening a bakery,” Mr. Hawkins said.... Mr. Hawkins said he was not vexed with his mysterious patron... “The guy paid me and he paid me pretty well.... So I’m not mad at all about that.”

Meanwhile, the building owner says he's getting hate mail for painting over the mural.