Melbourne council cleaners paint over Banksy stencil

This morning Banksy’s famous ‘parachuting rat’ stencil was accidentally painted over by Melbourne City Council workers sent to Hosier Lane to clean up the [real] rats and trash. Well, they achieved that, along with a bit of the street art the laneway is world famous for.

As it dawns upon the Council that they’ve destroyed an important work of art potentially worth over $100,000, they vow to take steps to make sure this never happens again. City Council CEO Kelly Alexander stated the Council would do more to make sure other ‘famous or significant’ street art works are protected in the future…

My question is this: When will the Council and the general public realise and accept the value and significance of street art? Banksy himself once stated that Melbourne is one of the graffiti capitals of the world. The reason for that isn’t because famous artists such as himself visit and drop stencils in our city, it’s because of the vibrant graffiti and street art culture that has developed over three decades in this city – locally. Grown, fostered and developed by Melbourne and Australian artists.

It is only when the Council hear that a particular piece of work has monetary value do they start to take notice. Anyone remember the last time Banksy’s work was destroyed? This time it was painted over by some of our own local artists after being ‘protected’ by the council and the buildings’ owners by putting a sheet of plastic over the top. All that the ubiquitous artist left was the simple tag: ‘BANKSY WOZ HERE’ on the ‘protective’ plastic sheeting that had chrome paint tipped over the side – a protest perhaps towards the selective acceptance of street art in our city.

The point is that street artists are continually criminalised, arrested, fined, and have their work painted over on a daily basis. No one blinks an eye. Banksy’s parachuting rat outside Hosier Lane was in a non-street art sanctioned area (therefore done illegally) and in any other case would have been swiftly removed had no one announced that it was by someone famous and therefore worth something.

Is the work of our developing street artists (many who have gone on to be successful commercial artists) worth nothing? When will the Council take into account that illegal street art done by local, non ‘famous’ street artists adds value to the culture of our city. That it might be worth protecting, developing and appreciating? Currently we have a clueless council who has free reign to destroy important art in and around our city.

Banksy started off as an illegal tagger and stenciler and still is today. By criminalising the work of some of his local contemporaries we risk ignoring one of our own Banskys and hinder their development into talented and world renowned artists.

written by Ed