A famous work of street art has gone down with its ship.
In the coastal English town of Dover, a landmark piece by the long-celebrated street artist Banksy has been destroyed as a result of its building’s demolition — but parts of the work may still get another life, CNN reported.
The mural, which depicted a laborer breaking a star off the European Union’s blue and gold flag, appeared on the structure’s side in 2017, a year after the UK voted to withdraw from the EU.
It quickly became a tourist attraction, and was at one point valued to be worth over $1.2 million, before being whitewashed one 2019 night, according to CNN.
Attempts were made, unsuccessfully, to restore the mural, but it was ultimately determined to be too expensive for town residents. And now the building is gone, knocked down for a larger regeneration program.
“Prior to authorizing the demolition, and having taken professional conservation advice, [Dover City Council] determined that the Banksy could not be viably conserved without considerable costs to local taxpayers, even if it were technically possible,” a Dover City Council spokesperson told CNN in a statement.
Still, contractor DDS Demolition, which knocked down the building, “is attempting to see if the Banksy artwork can be conserved in any way,” according to a post about the regeneration program on the Council’s website.
“There is no certainty that this will be successful given the fact that the artwork was whitewashed and the poor state of the render,” the post adds.
DDS is meeting “all additional costs and risks that they incur in attempting to recover the Banksy,” it further notes. “Should their attempts be successful, any elements of the Banksy would be the property of DDS Demolition in line with the terms of the contract which, as is standard practice with demolition projects, gives them the ownership of any salvageable materials from the buildings.”