On the 27th of April Melbourne council admitted to removing an image from the wall of a building that has been rumoured to be painted by street art legend Banksy. This image is said to be the last of Banksy’s artwork in Melbourne, after Vandals poured paint over another iconic Banksy stencil depicting an old-fashioned diver wearing a trenchcoat on the corner of Swanston St and Flinders Lane.
This particular artwork was an image of a rat descending in a parachute and was on the wall of an old council building on Hosier Lane.
Council chief executive Kathy Alexander confirmed the council had mistakenly ordered an external contractor to remove the work.
According to Ms. Alexander “The removal of the rat stencil was not an error on the cleaners’ behalf as they were acting under instruction to clean all unapproved areas and were not made aware of the significance of the artwork,”
There is now a rush to preserve “significant artworks” in Melbourne, with the city council introducing a permit system that can give building owners permission to display graffiti works.
While Ms Alexander has stated that “It was by exception that the rat stencil had been allowed to remain in Hosier Lane on an unapproved site,” she obviously regrets the removal of the work, as she later admitted that the council should have acted quicker to protect all of the citysBanksy artworks.
The fact is that while Banksy is a graffiti artist, his works are pieces of art rather than meaningless scrawls (which is what most graffiti is). His works sell for thousands of dollars and so I think that cities around the world should work to preserve his art.
Written by Nooblet
