A BANKSY original painted over by a “fed-up” property owner has been saved – and hit the market for an eye-watering price.
The piece was initially spray-painted onto an office building in Holywell Row, Shoreditch in 2006.
Illusive Banksy signed the art, which showed Appache Attack helicopters with pink bows on them, and called it Holywell Row Happy Helicopters.
But the former owner of the building painted over the work the following year after fans kept turning up and setting off the security light.
Then, when he sold the building, he failed to let the new owner know there was a Banksy piece hidden beneath a layer of paint on the wall.
It wasn’t until the new owner was flipping through a Banksy book and spotted his building that he realised what was once there.
He then paid art restorers to bring the piece back to its former beauty – and decided to sell it.
The mural is expected to fetch between £500,000 and £700,000.
The vendor, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: “We were astounded to discover that our office building was the canvas for an artwork of this significance, and what was more, it had been painted over by the previous owner.
“We wanted to ensure the integrity of the piece so approached restoration specialists to find the best way of preserving it for generations to come.
“To our knowledge no one had attempted to rescue a fragile work of high-profile street art like this before.
“As the piece had been painted on render, after several abortive attempts, the decision was made to remove it in sections by specialists.”
When the man first spotted his building in a book, he rushed outside to work out if he could still see the Banksy piece.
There he could just about make out a part of a helicopter propeller that hadn’t been painted over.
He then called in a fine art conservator, who tested part of the paint to ensure it wouldn’t damage the piece.
They then removed eight rectangular sections, and, after more than a year of work, the art has been turned into a 6ftx4ft framed mural.
It is now coming up for auction with Anderson & Garland Auctioneers of Newcastle for up to £700,000.
Chris Bull, of The Fine Art Restoration Company who worked on the project said: “The conservation of Happy Choppers took over a year to complete.
“Previous overpaint and localised graffiti was also removed without disturbing Banky’s original stencil.
“As these murals do not use a medium traditionally found in art, our conservators investigated the chemistry of the original pigments and developed new techniques suitable for the safe treatment of aerosol art.
“One of the many difficulties we had was that the work had been sprayed on render and structurally could not be removed in one piece due to the likely risk of it breaking apart.
“The decision had to be taken for it to be removed in sections.”
The piece will be sold at auction on March 20.
By Summer Raemason
BANKSY’S real identity has been wildly speculated – and there are many clues pointing towards Robin Gunningham.
Many people believe he is the graffiti artist after mysterious photographs appeared to show him working on a famous Banksy in 2004.
The anonymous artist last year found himself the subject of legal action accusing him of defamation.
Many speculate Gunningham’s name will be exposed after finding what is believed to be ‘evidence’.
Both Banksy and Gunningham appear to live in the same locations at the same time artwork pops up.
In 1998 Gunningham was living in Easton, Bristol, and at the same time Banksy painted the famous Mild Mild West sign, which shows a stuffed bear with a Molotov cocktail.
Banksy’s signature artwork was then found in London in 2000, the same year Gunningham lived in a flat in Kingsland Road, Hackney.
However, former flatmate and friend Luke Egan said previously: “I lived with a guy, with Robin Gunningham. But he wasn’t [Banksy] then.
“I lived with him ages ago. I don’t think Banksy was around then anyway.”
It’s not the first time a Banksy piece has been destroyed.
Late last year a council ripped down a building that held the street artist’s EU mural.
The Banksy artwork showed a workman chipping away one of the stars on the European Union flag.
It was painted on to the property in May 2017, almost a year after Britain voted in a referendum to leave the EU.
It was later whitewashed overnight in 2019 before elements were restored.
A comprehensive list of his street work is shared here.
Among his recent additions is a mural in Margate in Kent, depicting a 1950s housewife wearing an apron and washing-up gloves while shoving a man into a freezer.
Previous pieces include a girl hula-hooping in Nottingham, “Kissing Coppers” in Brighton, “Hoodie With Knife” in London’s Waterloo and the British Parliament shown as monkeys.
This last one sold at auction for £9.9million in October 2019.
One of his most famous creations, Girl With Balloon, seemed to self-destruct in a secret shredder when snapped up for £1million.
There have been exhibitions of his artwork such as one titled “Genius Or Vandal” in Portugal‘s capital Lisbon.
Banksy also reportedly invested £1million to help save a struggling pub in Somerset early last year.
