Banksy stolen from whymark Ave

[Fr Simon Clark]

Seems thieves stole the Banksy last night Friday 15th February. Am very sad about this. Will post pic of the hole.

[Rachella Sinclair]

According to local rumour, the owner of the building removed it "for safe keeping." Either way, it's sickening.

[Fr Simon Clark]

I asked poundland staff and they told me it was stolen overnight.

[Rachella Sinclair]

It looks like the rumours are true. The Wood Green Banksy is now up for auction. The question that looms large in my mind is that even though it was created on private property by a secret artist, does that give the owner of the building the right to sell the work? Who owns the rights to sell it? Who does it ultimately belong to? I would argue that it belongs to the public it was created for. 

A graffiti artist I know who was prolific in East London before he moved to Berlin seems to back up this belief. He says: "The work I make is for my community and my neighbours. If I can put a smile on one of my neighbours’ faces, or encourage a member of my community to use their brain a little more, then I indirectly reap the reward from this."

[Fr Simon Clark]

I agree entirely. I am shocked and horrified. How about a press release with photo ?

[Rachella Sinclair]

The Metro and the Sun have now published articles about the disappearance of the Banksy:

Anger as ‘Poundland Banksy’ removed from north London and put up fo...

Banksy robbers: Mural hacked off wall set to sell for £450k

[Noel Park net]

Here's what it looks like today in a photo posted to Twitter by Noel Park councillor Alan Strickland.

[Noel Park net]

Just in from Poundland: 

Poundland ‏@poundland

We would like to confirm that we are NOT responsible for either selling or removing the Banksy mural. We are currently investigating.

[Eleanor Abernathy]

One of our Noel Park councillors has started a campaign to contact the auction company who's selling the Banksy He's asking people to  email art company auctioning it on [e-mail]. Tell them to withdraw it from auction

[Fr Simon Clark]

I wrote the following feel free to cut and paste:

Dear Sirs

I would respectfully ask you to reconsider handling the sale of the Banksey Slave Labour (Bunting Boy) Art installation that has been stolen from our community and which you are currently advertising for sale.

 

This was a much loved piece of work and local residents are very proud of it. We had taken steps with the support local Borough Council to protect and encourage others to come to see it and admire it.

 

We were sad to note that it had been stolen and that we were then shocked to see that you were prepared to deal with the Auction of stolen property.

 

We firmly believe that this work of art by its very nature was given to our community for the benefit of all our citizens. We ask that you too see beyond the beyond the commercial value of it and with us seek to help to have this returned to its rightful place in our community.

 

Many Thanks

 

Fr Simon Clark 

 

Parish Priest 

Noel Park, Wood Green London UK

[Eddie]

What a storm in a teacup.

[Rachella Sinclair]

It seems to me that the issue is much deeper than that. I still believe that the owner of the building removed the Banksy, which is just another example of how many absentee landlords exploit the community, especially on the high road. The only thing the owners of this property care about is making money. They don't care about the high street and they don't care about the people who shop there and live close by.

[Noel Park net]

Haringey Council has now started a Facebook campaign to get the back: https://www.facebook.com/bringbackbanksy