Cleaners Paint Over Priceless Stencil of a Rat by Banksy
April 29, 2010 by All Art News
Filed under Art Crime & Legal
CANBERRA.- An Australian council is rueing a decision to send street cleaners into a Melbourne lane after they painted over a priceless stencil of a rat by the celebrated British graffiti artist Banksy.
Melbourne Deputy Lord Mayor Susan Riley last week sent a clean-up team into Hosier Lane, renowned internationally for its colorful street art, to clean up garbage in the graffiti-lined passage after local residents complained.
But the request went awry when the cleaners painted over a Banksy stencil of a rat hanging underneath a parachute and adorning the wall of an old council building. “Unfortunately the contractors were not made aware by us that that was an important piece. It is the nature of graffiti art. It’s very vulnerable to other people’s work,” Council chief executive Kathy Alexander told local radio.
People walk past a vinyl replacement of the street art stencil titled "Little Diver" by British street artist Banksy in central Melbourne April 28, 2010. An Australian council is rueing a decision to send street cleaners into a Melbourne lane after they painted over a priceless stencil of a rat by the celebrated graffiti artist Banksy
The reclusive Banksy, who is regarded as one of the world’s top street artists, painted several stencils in Melbourne during a 2003 visit. His satirical and distinctive art is often directed at anti-war, cultural and anti-capitalist themes.
Banksy in 2005 painted nine images on Israel’s West Bank barrier, including a ladder going over the wall and an image of children breaking through to a tropical island.
In 2008, a London wall bearing one of his stencils was said to have sold on eBay for almost $500,000.
It is not the first time Banksy’s art has been fouled in Melbourne. Vandals created another outcry in 2008 when they poured paint over the artist’s stencil of a diver in an old-fashioned helmet and wearing a trenchcoat.
That work was afterwards protected by a sheet of clear perspex, although vandals struck again and poured silver paint behind the barrier, tagging it with the words “Banksy woz ere.”
Alexander said the city council would rush through retrospective permits to protect other famous or significant artworks in Australia’s second-largest city.
“In hindsight, we should have acted sooner to formally approve and protect all known Banksy works,” she said.
Updated 30/04/2010: More information at the following links:
http://www.thevine.com.au/blog/cashcow/the-little-diver-resurfaced.aspx
http://www.desktopmag.com.au/blogs/the-resurrection-of-banksys-little-diver
http://www.flickr.com/photos/phoenixthestreetartist/
Council cleaners are not the only foes Melbourne street art pieces have to fear. Overnight, my restoration of Banksy’s Little Diver you have featured here in the photo (The Little Diver Resurfaced) was ‘desurfaced’ for the second time – with obvious destructive intent.
An image of this can be seen at: http://twitpic.com/1jhc9b
Banksy’s Little Diver has been a controversial piece within the local street art and graffiti community ever since it was lauded, ‘valued’(at $400,000), protected under perspex, and given an official Melbourne City Council street art plaque.
Many have considered the vandalism and virtual obliteration of the original piece, by silver paint tipped behind the Council’s perspex screen, to have been carried out by local street artists or graffiti taggers in defiance of the Council’s attempts to turn the work into a tourist attraction.
My restoration piece, which carefully reproduced the parts of the piece lost beneath the silver paint – but preserved its intact parts – has lasted just three weeks before being itself targetted. Clearly the controversy surrounding the Little Diver remains – providing an interesting side-story to this other controversy over the defacement of a Banksy.
The Little Diver has again been repaired; this time she has been left untouched for the best part of a week.
What I love in particular is that the Little Diver’s question – though still imponderable – is brought back. It almost seems she is asking now:
“Why is this happening to me?
A photo of the re-resurfaced diver – and a series of photos telling the story – can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/phoenixthestreetartist/galleries/72157623788302633/
Thank you Phoenix for your comments and for expanding the information.