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Banksy is an unpredictable artist, appearing out of nowhere in numerous countries across the globe to showcase his latest work.
The secretive street artist is back in the spotlight again after he confirmed he was behind the new urban tree artwork which popped up in Finsbury Park last week.
It was even thought Banksy may have been pictured at the scene of his latest piece – though the person in the photograph denies this – as it’s covered up and fenced off to prevent vandalism.
Not everybody is happy when one of his artworks appear, with some considering his pieces as simple vandalism.
And with Banksy’s identity remaining hidden, there’s also the thorny issue of copyright to deal with – as well as the ownership of the pieces he’s painted on public buildings.
Metro.co.uk takes a look back at some of Banksy’s works which have been caught up in controversy.
Brexit Mural, Dover
Dover was considered the perfect place for Banksy to share a piece of pro-EU art, just under a year after the UK voted for Brexit.
The piece appeared on the side of an unused building in Townwall Street on May 7, 2017, and its position meant it was highly visible to drivers heading towards the town’s port.
The building, formerly Castle Amusements owned by the infamous local Godden family, hadn’t been used for a number of years when Banksy turned up.
A combination of the building’s deterioration as well as the salty sea air meant that within two years of its arrival, the Brexit mural was in poor condition, with paint flaking away and the wall covered in mould.
The Goddens were said to be exploring whether to keep, remove, or sell the piece, which had been valued at £1 million.
But one art expert told KentLive the painting could lose up to three-quarters of its value if it was moved from Dover, as its political message is intrinsically linked to the town.
Not long after locals and art experts started calling for the piece to be preserved, in August 2019 scaffolding was put up and by the end of the day the piece had been covered up with white paint.
Banksy himself responded with disappointment, sharing his plans for the piece once Brexit finally happened.
And now there is no chance of the Dover Banksy ever being recovered, as the building it was painted on has now been demolished as part of regeneration efforts for the town.
However, the Goddens’ decision to paint over the Brexit mural may have been influenced by the outcome of Folkestone’s Banksy, which we explain below…
Art Buff, Folkestone
Art Buff appeared on the side of the Palace Amusements building in Payers Park, Folkestone, on September 28, 2014.
It appeared during the Triennial, an art festival which takes place across the town every three years, with Banksy commenting it was ‘part of the Triennial. Kind of’.
But in the almost 10 years since it was painted, Art Buff has been vandalised, cut out of the building, flown abroad to Miami for potential sale, and was at the centre of a major legal battle.
It saw phalluses and other rude graffiti spray painted onto the plinth before it was hidden behind Perspex for protection.
The local council stopped protecting the piece from vandalism after two weeks, meaning the tenants of the amusements – the Godden family – had to step up and take ‘full responsibility’.
And by November 2014 the piece was removed, with MP Damian Collins confirming that the Goddens hoped to sell off the piece to raise money for their family’s charitable trust.
The decision caused outrage, with protests in the town urging the Goddens to ‘give us Banksy back’.
In December 2014 the piece was flown to an art fair in Miami, where it failed to sell – and nine months later, nearly a full year after it was first painted, the Folkestone Creative Foundation won its legal battle to bring Art Buff back to the town.
The case, heard London’s High Court, saw the judge rule in favour of the Foundation, who disputed whether the artwork actually belonged to the Goddens.
Mr Justice Arnold ruled that once the artwork had been cut out of the building, it now belonged to the landlord of the building – the Foundation – and not the tenants, the Godden family.
It then spent years in storage before being returned to Folkestone and installed, behind glass, in the wall next to a cafe and cocktail bar on the town’s Old High Street in 2020.
Girl With Balloon and Flower Thrower
Girl With Balloon and Flower Thrower are arguably two of Banksy’s most recognisable works – so it’s not really a surprise that other brands may have wanted to use them in some way.
Fashion brand Guess landed in hot water with the anonymous artist after he accused them of exploiting his artworks without consent, using his pieces in window displays and printed on garments.
He angrily commented on Instagram: ‘Attention all shoplifters. Please go to Guess on Regent Street. They’ve helped themselves to my artwork without asking, how can it be wrong for you to do the same to their clothes?’
The fashion company justified the collection by emphasising that it was ‘inspired by Banksy’s graffiti’ and that they had legally acquired rights over Banksy’s art.
But both Banksy and his organisation Pest Control were highly unlikely to have handed over the copyright, with Banksy’s website first claiming ‘neither Banksy or Pest Control licence the artist’s images to third parties’ and then adding that ‘Banksy doesn’t do merchandise’.
It was even speculated that Banksy might have to forego anonymity if he wanted to take Guess to court to protect his intellectual property – but so far, he’s been able to keep his identity under wraps.
21 Mivart Street, Bristol
One of Banksy’s earliest works was sold with a house attached to it.
The graffiti was painted in 2003, before the artist started to predominantly use stencils, on the wall of 21 Mivart Street in the Easton area of Bristol.
When the owners of the home put their house up for sale, they were horrified to hear the new prospective owners planned to paint over it.
So instead, the BBC reports, they enlisted an art gallery to help them sell the work.
Sarah Anslow of the Red Propeller art gallery in Devon said back in 2007: ‘We’ve been absolutely overwhelmed by the interest in this piece.
‘It is an early Banksy, we think it’s about four years old, so that in itself makes it unusual and it was free-painted.
‘The people who own the house have decided to sell it but they’ve become frustrated as they’ve come close to exchanging contracts on several occasions only to find the prospective owners want to get rid of the mural.
‘The owners consider it a work of art and want it kept as it is. They came to us to help sell it as a mural with a house attached.’
Goddess holding her head in her hand, Gaza
Banksy visited Gaza in 2015 and painted a number of pieces, including several on a border wall between Israel and Palestine.
One of which was the piece above, spray painted onto Rabea Darduna’s iron-and-brick doorway. His home had been destroyed but the door remained standing.
Rabea sold the piece to artist Belal Khaled for 700 shekels (the equivalent of about $175 at the time) – but the piece faced controversy after Rabea wanted the piece back, complaining he had been swindled into selling it cheaply.
Palestinian police got involved and confiscated the door from Belal as legal action kicked off.
Belal said he was ‘the true owner of the door now, and I will seek to establish this in court’, while Rabea’s lawyer said his client had been ‘cheated’, the Guardian reports.
Unfortunately coverage of the dispute seems to end fairly abruptly, so it’s not known how it panned out and who ended up with the Banksy in the end.
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