A Banksy artwork, part of his recent London animal series, has been restored and safeguarded with an “anti-graffiti solution” after it was vandalised.
The piece, located on the side of a house in Chelsea, south-west London, features two elephants peeking out from behind blocked-out windows. The artwork was defaced shortly after it was unveiled last month, with white stripes obscuring the trunk of one of the elephants.
Kensington and Chelsea Council acted swiftly to erase the graffiti and have applied a protective anti-graffiti coating that preserves the artwork’s look.
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The elephants, which appeared on Edith Terrace in August, represent Banksy’s second contribution to the Kensington and Chelsea borough, following another mural on Portobello Road in Notting Hill.
Councillor Josh Rendall, of the Stanley ward, said: “We were delighted to discover Banksy had come back to Kensington and Chelsea to add another unique piece to our borough’s rich cultural landscape. It was disappointing when it was painted over and we have been quick to return the elephants to their former glory by removing the unwanted paint, applying an anti-graffiti solution and cleaning up the surrounding area. We hope that residents and visitors enjoy this and our other Banksy piece on Portobello Road for many years to come.”
The Bristol-based street artist began the animal-themed series in the capital on August 5 by unveiling a painting of a goat with rocks falling down below and a CCTV camera pointed at it on a building near Kew Bridge in south-west London. This was swiftly followed by the elephant silhouettes, and then an image of three monkeys that appeared to be swinging from a bridge in east London.
Banksy’s fourth creation, depicting a howling wolf on top of a satellite dish on a Peckham rooftop, was removed within an hour of the artist posting it online. A bystander who saw the removal told PA news agency that three men took it down, describing its loss as a “great shame”.
Banksy’s next artwork was a piece showing pelicans snatching fish from the sign of Bonners Fish Bar in Walthamstow.
The collection continued with a silhouette of a stretching cat on an empty, distressed advertising hoarding, but the piece was later dismantled by three men who said they were “hired” from a “contracting company” to take down the billboard for safety reasons. A police officer at the site informed PA that the billboard’s owner had promised to donate it to an art gallery.
The following day, Banksy verified that an artwork of a shoal of fish painted on a City of London police sentry box was indeed his work. City of London officials have announced they are exploring options to “preserve” the piece of artwork, which was relocated temporarily to the City of London Corporation’s offices for its protection.
Subsequently, an artwork depicting a rhinoceros appearing to mount a silver Nissan Micra adorned with a traffic cone surfaced, only to be later vandalised with graffiti.
The final addition to the series emerged on a shutter at the entrance of London Zoo, illustrating a gorilla seemingly lifting the gate to release a flock of birds, with the eyes of other animals lurking in the shadows. Soon after its unveiling, the artwork was taken down for “safekeeping” and to facilitate easy access to the zoo’s main entry during its “busy summer period”.
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