Work is underway to remove the Banksy art work which was stencilled on to a house in Margate’s Park Place last month.
The Valentine’s Day Mascara image appeared on the private home overnight on February 13. It is now due to be moved to Dreamland for a period of at least 12 months before it is sold.
Thanet-based Oasis Domestic Abuse Service will receive ‘a significant, six-figure sum’ from the sale of the art work to support its work with survivors of domestic violence.
Work began inside the property last week and is understood to have involved removing flooring. The tenants are currently staying in an Air B&B.
The art will need to be cut out of the wall and hoardings have gone up around the site in readiness for this.
The works are being overseen by Red Eight Gallery which was called in by the artist owners of the property last month to deal with preservation and sale of the work.
Red Eight Gallery chief exec Julian Usher said: “Work has started on the removal process. The builders and engineers are preparing the house so it is ready for the area to be removed and can be cut out safely.
“Once out – the target date for removal is Tuesday/Wednesday next week – it will go to the art conservator to be made stable and exhibit ready with the freezer reinstated.
“The target date for arrival at Dreamland is April 7-10 but this is still a moving part.”
The work is expected to be displayed on a stand at Dreamland for a duration of at least 12 months, possibly longer. It isn’t Banksy’s first association with Dreamland. In November 2013 he visited an open day at the site arranged by people including Thanet artist Dan Thompson to mark the park’s move to public ownership.
He left a tag on the park comment wall which is now owned by the Dreamland Heritage Trust.
In 2015 he went on to create art project Dismaland in Weston-super-Mare in Somerset.
Last year Red Eight Gallery held the first Banksy exhibition in the City of London, called Banking on Banksy, as the venue’s launch event.
The exhibition contained more than 35 Banksy works, from originals to screen prints to sculptures including many of his popular pieces and some of his less well known works.
The piece in Margate – before items were removed – showed a woman with a swollen shut eye and missing tooth with a man’s legs poking out from a chest freezer, alongside an upturned chair and a beer bottle. It is understood to be a comment on domestic violence.
The chest freezer with a jammed open lid as a prop was removed by Thanet council on February 14 to be ‘made safe’ as it was on public land. Council workers returned the freezer to the site the following day but it was taken away yet again the same night by the gallery to be stored.
Domestic violence – 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.
To get non-emergency domestic abuse support call Oasis’s helpline on 0800 917 9948 (Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 9am – 4.30pm) or email [email protected] if it’s safe to do so
In an emergency call 999. If you can’t speak, cough or tap the handset then press 55 on your phone – the police will know it’s an emergency.
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.
