A Banksy mural sprayed on the wall of a terraced house at the centre of a long-running saga has been cut off and carried by a forklift truck to an art gallery. Workmen could be seen carrying a huge chunk of the wall away, leaving the inside of the end-of-terrace building exposed.
Dubbed 'The Valentine’s Day Mascara' by the elusive artist, it is to be shipped 300 metres down the road from it's current home in Margate, Kent, to the Dreamland amusement park in the seaside town. The work is believed to be a statement on domestic violence, showing a painted woman with a black eye and missing tooth wearing 1950s garb as she pushes a man into a real-life freezer.
Since appearing last month, the piece has been embroiled in an ongoing saga, with Thanet District Council and an art gallery repeatedly removing and returning the freezer for safety and conservation reasons. Hoardings were erected beside the piece as staff began to take it down and send it to the park.
The house will be propped up while the artwork, believed to be worth several million pounds, is delicately cut out. After removal, the art will be placed between two steel sheets and taken to a conservationist in nearby Faversham.
A team will make the art stable and safe, then design a stand before transporting it back to Margate to its new home at Dreamland. London-based Red Eight Gallery, that removed freezer last month in a bid to save it, is dealing with the high-value work.
Contractors for Red Eight Gallery were seen using a forklift truck to remove the wall which holds the piece of art - almost seven weeks after the saga began. Its removal is the last step of an “intricate” process they have been working on to keep the mural safe.
The operation involved propping the house up while the piece was cut out and removed, ahead of its relocation to Dreamland where it will be available for public viewing. Julian Usher, chief executive of Red Eight Gallery, said: "It will be in Dreamland for at least 12 months, but we are trying to keep it in there for three years.
"There has been a lot of interest in the work from many different parties."
Work to remove the piece started on March 13 after it first appeared on the side of the house on February 14, Valentine's Day. Gallery CEO Mr Usher, described the removal work as "very intricate and tricky but relatively simple for the experts”.
The appearance of the Banksy sparked a lengthy saga, with hordes flocking to the unassuming residential street - before the freezer was taken away by Thanet District Council. It was then put back again, before being removed a second time by Red Eight Gallery and it is thought items put alongside the work by the elusive artist were also stolen.
The value of the piece cannot be confirmed yet, but it is thought to be worth several million pounds.
