A British couple spent $250,000 to remove a Banksy mural from their home

A British couple spent nearly $250,000 to remove a Banksy mural from their wall because of the “extremely stressful” upkeep of it.

In 2021, Banksy painted a 6-meter seagull on the wall of a house in Lowestoft, Suffolk, Art News and Artnet News reported.

Since then, homeowners Harry and Gokean Coates have been vandalized and forced to pay for the seagull’s security and preservation, spending nearly $50,000 a year.

Removing the mural cost about a quarter of a million dollars.

“At first it was just incredible, but as things unfolded it became extremely stressful. I’m not sure Banksy realizes the unintended consequences for homeowners. If we could turn back time, we would.”Harry Coates said in an interview with The Times.

Read also: Leave it as it is or transfer it to the museum: what to do with Banksy’s works in the Kyiv region?

In 2021, Banksy painted a 6m seagull on the wall of a house in Lowestoft

Hooligans tried to paint over the mural, and thieves chipped off pieces of the work to sell on Facebook, causing both the building and its owners to suffer.

After one such theft, the couple had to hire a security guard at their own expense to watch over the mural at night.

In the end, the family decided to remove the 22-ton mural.

The Coates couple had to block the road and hire a 40-foot crane at a cost of £200,000 ($246,300).

Lowestoft Town Council accepted that the couple had the right to remove the work from their property and that “Banksy’s works, by their nature, cannot always be permanent objects”.

Local art dealer John Brandler wants to preserve the mural in a gallery or museum. And the Coates hope to sell the painting to recoup their costs.

We will remind you that last year the British street artist Banksy created seven murals in different places of Ukraine, in particular in Kyiv, Irpen and Borodyanka, Gostomeli.ya

However, the Gostomel mural was cut down by a group of people, for which they were detained by the police.

Also read: The artist who helped cut Banksy’s work: “All I wanted was to save the graffiti”