Thanet council has removed a chest freezer which was used to form part of the Banksy ‘Valentine’s Day Mascara’ artwork in Margate.
The art, commenting on domestic violence, appeared yesterday morning (February 13) and was confirmed as a Banksy original on the artist’s Instagram today.
Removing the freezer breaks the illusion of the 50’s style housewife, who has a swollen eye and missing tooth, pushing the man inside.
The painting is in Park Place (rear of Grosvenor Place, near Margate fire station),.
It was proving a draw for curious residents this morning who went to see the work and artist Pete Brown who has been capturing the scene on canvas. The removal of the ‘dumped’ freezer was on health and safety grounds.
Banksy’s stencils feature striking and, often darkly humorous, images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment.
He displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls and self-built physical prop pieces. His work has appeared at locations world-wide.
Furious county councillor Barry Lewis, who represents Margate, said: “It’s a disgrace. This brought international acclaim to Margate and within hours Thanet council has destroyed a valuable asset to the town. The council leader should resign.”
Update: A Thanet council spokesperson said: “We are aware that the graffiti artist known as Banksy has confirmed that the mural that has appeared recently in Margate is his.
“The graffiti is situated on a wall of a privately owned property. A fridge freezer which is believed to have been part of the installation has been removed by council operatives on the grounds of safety as it was on public land.
“The fridge freezer is now in storage and will be returned once it has been made safe to the public. We will be contacting the owner of the property to discuss the options to preserve the artwork for the district.”
Don’t suffer in silence – get help
Find help information from Oasis Domestic Abuse service at http://www.oasisdaservice.org/get-help-now and click the ‘exit now’ button to erase all traces from your Internet history.
Call Kent Domestic Abuse Services Victim Support on 0808 168 9276
The National Domestic Abuse Helpline is run by Refuge and offers free, confidential support 24 hours a day to victims and those who are worried about friends and loved ones. Telephone: 0808 2000 247
The Men’s Advice Line is a confidential helpline for male victims of domestic abuse and those supporting them.
Call 0808 801 0327.
Margate wall painting confirmed as piece by street artist Banksy
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Cue the petition for fly-tipping to be replaced !!!
Haha, yes!!
Anyway y’all, some of us need to take a beautiful woman out for a Valentines dinner. Enjoy the rest of your day!
Why should the council leader resign. ?
Would it be that difficult for Bansky to return and paint in a Freezer. ?
Or not atall and leave the poor person inside who is at their wits end with all the repeated knocking at the door, shame on u Banksy! Frikkin pretentious artists, ‘Oh look at me! I am all so self important and draw on peoples walls in the middle of the night, then leave others with the mess and snigger to myself as I watch all the jelly brains explode in joy ‘oh we love Banksy! Hes an artist don’t u know!’
That’s a good idea he could paint in a freezer
Nothing more Thanet Council than that.
They leave fridges and freezers for months elsewhere. Someone gives this one meaning and they remove it immediately.
Morons.
Barry Lewis is furious, because TDC have removed fly-tipped rubbish. The world (well, Margate) has gone barmy!
Usually agree with him on most of his posts here, but TDC were made aware of fly tipping & removed the offending articles-what they should do. The ‘art’ remains. There is also the small matter of the publicity being a total nuisiance for the property owner/renter & those surrounding.
It seems highly improbable that Banksy magically heard about some fly-tipping in remote Thanet & came here to do this, so it seems probable this was arranged by him & so should be held responsible & fined for illegal fly-tipping. But of course when nobody can prove your identity & Thanet Council is besotted with the modern art luvvies, you can get away with anything.
Barry usually talks sense, but seems to have got caught up in the media hysteria.
The fixed open freezer was supposed to be part of his art ! Maybe he should have just painted it on the wall with the rest of it.
Mind you, it was a bit strange TDC acted so fast for once.
A world renown artist chooses to grace Margate with a piece which will attract many visitors to the town & TDC desecrates it!
Yes, Esme, we get it.
As long as it’s in the name of art, you’re allowed to do anything you like in Margate
There was I thinking what a wonderful thing to happen in Margate. If valued it would be worth thousands but TDC have taken the chest freezer away which will obviously have a serious affect on that value.
Banksy won’t come back because his identity is unknown so TDC need to do something very quickly to preserve the painting.
TDC proving yet again that they have the reverse midas touch.
The streets are filthy, rubbish everywhere but they clear up the one piece of fly tipping that has made the national news and, if only for a fleeting moment, put Margate in a positive light.
You literally couldn’t make it up.
PS – Perhaps Banksy will paint something in the Ramsgate multi storey car park so the Council can rush round there and clean it all up.
So now certain councillors want to encourage vandalism and fly tipping to put Margate on the map.
They don’t have to do anything because people will be able to follow the noise from dreamland until 4am so it doesn’t need putting on the map.
Still, it’s a lot better than anything in the Turner shed that I have seen.
TDC have been caught in the world spotlight about the rubbish they care not a jot for on our streets. Over the other side there is crap and has been crap left for over 3 years, I have complained several times and been told its been taken away, when clearly no.
What about the TV monitor on Hartsdown Road Bridge with all the broken glass.
What an effing useless council this is.
Still the tents with all abusive men at the Wasteland shelter stay.
Christina ‘O’
I would say it’s more a case of the world seeing what a dump thanet is. The freezer was probably dump here by someone who lives here. Its the locals that dump here because they are happy for the area to look like this.
Thanet is fast becoming like dipperpool
So Banksy’s answer to domestic violence is not to call the police, but to murder.
Thanet Council the gift that keeps on giving!
Only when a well known artist decides to paint a mural around a piece of fly tipped waste, do they stir their stumps and drag it away.
Banksy probably guessed they would act like this, so it is probably an ironic not iconic art work.
At least most of us can agree that it is a clever piece of art (except Peter Checksfield of course, who hates all modern art, and prefers something with horns and painted onto a biscuit tin lid).
Much as you love trying to be my spokesman… where have I said that I hate, or even dislike, this “art”?
Where art thou Nokesy?
Who’d want to be the person living in the graffitied on house or the flats who’s carpark the public are now trespassing on, just to see some vandalism !!!
Lol
TDC get moaned at for not picking up fly tipping than when TDC they get moaned for acutely picking up fly tipping lol.
Brilliant someone has done some graffiti on the side of someone home. But it’s ok as it banksy and not joe blogs! !
TDC will be along later to jetwash it off and than people will moan that TDC are now cleaning off graffiti lol
Brilliant
Do TDC own the house ?
So let me get this right the arty community like people doing graffiti and also like people doing fly tipping.
Now I understand art !
Knowing Banksy (I don’t personally but…) he’s likely paid the council to take it, I mean it’s made lunchtime news now, & exactly why I’m here in the 1st place!
TDC waste management website page.
If you have a flytipping concern please apply a suitable image and we will identify and remove.
I now know what they meant by “suitable image”!
So, let me get this right, if TDC remove a piece of fly tipping from a graffiti artist, at no cost, as per the post, people dont have to pay to have their electrical items removed, and don’t need to pay company’s to remove them. Just asking, Maybe TDC can comment and tell the council tax payers who to contact to dispose of these items at no cost to the householder, as most companies charge you to take away and dispose of electrical items.
On this occasion I have to agree with Cllr Barry Lewis, it is petty in the extreme of TDC to destroy this artwork designed for Valentine’s day, before the day is done. Yet rubbish lay on Thanet streets for months until residents complain and pester the council to do something to clean it up. The number of times one has witnessed piles of waste at the ends of Athelstan and Ethelbert Roads until residents pester councillors to get something done, but when an internationally renowned artist utilises a peice of garbage to create art TDC destroy it. One wonders if it is the political message campaigning against domestic violence that TDC are keen to silence.
If I or anyone was caught spray painting on a side of a house or anywhere wouldn’t we be arrested? And prosecuted?
For all those above criticising Thanet Council for the removal of this freezer. Just stop and think for moment what could happen if a child got inside it. Suffocation and maybe death. Finally looking at some of the comments here it reinforces my view that I was right to leave the area almost a year ago.
For all those above criticising Thanet Council for the removal of this freezer. Just stop and think for moment what could happen if a child got inside it. Suffocation and maybe death. Finally looking at some of the comments here it reinforces my view that I was right to leave the area almost a year ago.
And Thank Christ you did.
If only you’d taken all the other morons with you.
I just came here to see if your fellow morons who were saying that “it’s obviously not Banksy” and “the artist must be a woman because they drew a woman” had anything else idiotic to comment.
‘Thank Christ’ I did move. At least we agree on something!
No, it was fixed open a jar, unable to close and part of the art piece.
You know what to do now,if you want a piece of crap removed from a public space.
That freezer will fetch a few Bob on e bay.
Do we get to see how many times something new pops up in that gap for a revisited version of this artwork?
Dammed if they do and damned if they dont!
Morons TDC take a look around the dumping in Thanet this is a bansky original and the point is the Chest freezer
OMG ,, get the freezer back and at least have something to bring interest in Margate can the council remove those ridiculous windmills from Wellington crescent
Some kind of cultural white(goods)washing?
TDC had no choice , can you imagine the uproar if someone had copied the art , climbed in the freezer , door slams shut and they suffocated in it, having been widely publicised they couldn’t pretend they didn’t know it was there so had to remove an obvious hazard that was attracting lots of attention. Barry Lewis would have soon kicked off if a kid had got hurt or similar but hey why miss the chance for a bit of politics.
Be much better if the Banksy collective came back and painted the freezer on the wall, rather than return it . It’s had it’s 15 minutes.
I see the hazard issue has been mentioned above already.
Did TDC send down any of the suits to face the public ? Bet it was just the two poor minions
TDC are putting it back. Oh this is so beautiful watching the usual suspects here get over emotional and all melty and defending something they don’t understand and clearly TDC were always gonna put it back. They know what a banksy is worth in tourism.
Hahaha.
Banksy would love this soap opera.
I’m loving the comments section. Keep it up. You guys are hilarious. I’m impressed. Not usually my thing.
Margate deserves it.
Vlogger Jim Driver’s take on the removal https://youtu.be/kY2w6dc9rfI
Blimey, he’s porked out a bit since I met him on a Jerry Lee Lewis tour (a good promoter by the way).
Who’s is Jim driver
Does he not see the danger of kids getting locking in the freezer. Kids have died by playing in fly tipped freezers.
https://jimdriver.com/about-jim-driver
How can someone get locked in a freezer that was deliberately propped open at that angle beforehand to make the art display what it was. Did you actually think Banksy would just leave it shutable and lockable ? He is a street artist not a moron.
He could be both?
And anyway, what is stopping kids from pushing it over? The first rule when dumping fridges/freezers is to ALWAYS remove the doors.
Kent Resident
He is a fly tipper and someone that does graffiti, the same as hundreds of people in thanet !
Just because some people like doesnt change that fact.
Think it somewhat improves the look of Margate with graffiti
So TDC fail to empty food bins on a hot sunny day leaving the food to rot and smell and become infested with maggots and thus a health hazard and fail to send another crew out within the next week to empty the missed bins. However they can remove this in an instant.