Cleaners paint over art

[Gblue]

LONDON (Reuters) - Transport workers in London have painted over a mural by world-renowned graffiti artist Banksy, erasing a piece of art estimated to be worth $500,000 (250,000 pounds).

The mural, depicting a scene from the Quentin Tarantino movie Pulp Fiction in which Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta are holding bananas instead of guns, was spray-painted on the side of an electricity substation around five years ago.

It became one of the most famous graffiti paintings by Banksy, a reclusive artist whose work has attracted star-studded buyers including Angelina Jolie and Jude Law.

Transport for London, whose workers white-washed the mural near the Old Street tube station earlier this month, was unapologetic, saying its policy was to remove all graffiti that created an atmosphere of "neglect and social decay".

"We recognise that there are those who view Banksy's work as legitimate art, but sadly our graffiti removal teams are staffed by professional cleaners not professional art critics," it said in a statement.

Banksy's work is nothing short of amazing. Below is a picture of the grafitti that has been painted over.

[StreakInTheSky]

OMG They're holding bananas!!! Our society is so fucked up! T_T

[kaminokami2086]

Is there an owner to the wall? He should demand his money.

[soveryshiny]

OMG They're holding bananas!!! Our society is so fucked up! T_T

The bananas look like a reference or tribute to the album cover Andy Warhol did for the Velvet Underground.  See:

Is there an owner to the wall? He should demand his money.

Err, did you read it?  It was the owner that had it removed.

[polidread]

first thing that came to mind after i read this piece of news was LOLZ (and that's coming from an artist's POV) who the heck estimated the price of that graffiti ? have we reached a point in human evolution that those bomb works suddenly have worth?

one good thing i can think of about the newly painted white wall is:

the graffiti artists have a new surface to work on!

[soveryshiny]

first thing that came to mind after i read this piece of news was LOLZ (and that's coming from an artist's POV) who the heck estimated the price of that graffiti ? have we reached a point in human evolution that those bomb works suddenly have worth?

He's had screenprinted works go for over 100k pounds, so 40% of that estimated price for a large public work.  There's currently a house in England for sale as "mural with free house attached" because it has one of his pieces on a wall and the people selling it didn't want the new owners to paint over it.  Can't find a price listed for it, but I wouldn't be surprised to find it in the 250k range.

I'd say graffiti art has been worth that much ever since Jean-Michel Basquiat back in the 80s.  Wikipedia says the highest any of his works has gone for is 5.5 million US.  Although he's dead so that's upped the price.

[Asmodai]

The owners have a right to remove graffiti from their property.

That said, I'd try to find someone who would pay to remove and rebuilt the wall - they'd probably still end up ahead. (Or, they could donate to a museum that needed a new wall and write off most of the amount.)

[polidread]

ah, then it isnt exactly the  sort of graffiti ive been taught. Its more methodical and purposeful and takes much more effort than merely taking some paint to a wall. Thanks for the info!

I have read about parts of the Berlin wall which had graffiti on it preserved in some museums, but it having worth because of the historical wall and not necessarily the graffiti on it...

[danxshin]

idiots. but then again bansky who?