Having Banksy turned out to be more of a curse than a blessing for these homeowners.
A pair of UK homeowners paid handsomely last month to get rid of a piece by a graffiti artist that appeared randomly on their property in August 2021.
Gary and Goken Coutts found out their Suffolk home had been chosen as a canvas by the world-renowned street painter when their tenants told them scaffolding had randomly appeared outside – only to disappear the next day. To be, was replaced by a Banksy mural of a seagull. , The Daily Mail reported.
Now they are estimated to spend about $247,000 to let the bird fly.
“At first it was obviously unbelievable,” Gary reflected about the artwork, which is likely worth millions. “But as things have been going, it has become very stressful. I’m not sure Banksy realizes the unintended consequences on homeowners. If we could turn back the clock, we would.
A local council official informed the couple that it could put a “maintenance order” on the artwork and make the couple personally responsible for its upkeep – costing thousands annually.
“I had to hire a night watchman to look after it when someone stole part of it and tried to sell it on Facebook,” Gary said. “Another time the vandals were caught with a dozen pots of white paint and were apparently going to paint over it.”
Coutts decided to relieve himself of the burden, reluctantly with much more difficulty than the distinction of owning a real Banksy.
In April, they hired a building firm to reinforce the wall where the seagull appeared before using a 40-foot crane to remove it in one piece.
Now, according to the Daily Mail, the Coutts hope to sell the artwork and recoup the cost of more than $60,000 to remove it.
They plan to replace it with a replica, but viewers are not sympathetic, with one viewer claiming Banksy was being “stolen from town” on the night of its removal and others expressing sadness that it is going. .
