Reclusive street
artist Banksy can’t seem to catch a break Down Under.
Contractors in Australia inadvertently destroyed an artwork this week by the acclaimed British graffiti artist, the third time that misfortune has befallen one of his works in suburban Melbourne in recent years.
Workers drilling through a wall smashed through a picture of the “Parachuting Rat” that was painted on the brickwork outside. The workers were laying pipes for a new cafe,
ABC News Australia reported.
The work was painted in the late 1990s, depicting a rat carrying a suitcase and wearing a parachute.
Banksy, known for his satirical anti-capitalist and anti-war themes, has used images of rats in his street art from London to New York.
Another rat stencil work in Melbourne was accidentally painted over in 2010 during a government clean-up effort to fight aggresive tagging.
In December 2008, a piece called “The Little Diver” was vandalized with silver paint and tagged with the words, “Banksy woz ere.” A plastic covering for the piece did not deter the vandal.
Some Melbourne residents said the latest loss of a Banksy original is a blow to the art-friendly communtiy.
“They have unconsciously taken a part of Melbourne, taken a part of history which is really important to do with street art, and just destroyed it without even thinking about it,” business owner
Tina McKenzie griped to ABC News Australia about the contractors.
“They wouldn’t even know that that’s a $50,000 piece of art they've just sawed through, possibly even more,” she added.
Banksy, known only by his pseudonym, recently sold a collection of 18 pieces for more than $630,000 in London.
He also unveiled a new piece of wall art in North London featuring a boy sewing British flags, Sky News reported Thursday.
