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Council officials began removing part of Banksy’s latest painting today, just hours after the artist unveiled it.
The world-famous painter confirmed the Valentine’s Day artwork, which appeared on the back of a building near Grosvenor Place in Margate, Kent, as his own in a social media post this morning.
The advert caused crowds of Banksy fans to flock to the seaside town to pose for photos next to the painting, which depicts an abused 1950s housewife throwing her male partner into a refrigerator.
Just a few hours later, the contractors moved in and removed the freezer for health and safety reasons.
Video shared online shows two contractors removing parts of the physical aspects of the paint before stepping in to remove the freezer. MailOnline has contacted Thanet Council for comment.
Just hours after Banksy shared the artwork on his Instagram page, the contractors moved in, taking away the freezer that formed a vital part of the piece.
Video shared online shows two contractors removing parts of the physical aspects of the paint before stepping in to remove the freezer.
The woman in the Banksy painting, which is called ‘Valentine’s Day Mask’, is wearing a blue pinny and yellow wash gloves, and she also has a swollen eye and a missing tooth.
The artwork also features trash on the ground in front of her, including a broken white lawn chair, a blue box, and an empty beer bottle, all of which have now been removed.
Dan Bambridge-Higgins, who captured the moment the freezer was taken away, tweeted: “You can’t get them to sort out tips but hilariously sad @ThanetCouncil’s instant reaction to a new Banksy in Margate is to remove it.” !’
The original post to Banksy’s 11.8 million Instagram followers confirming the piece was his was shared with Banksy’s 11.8 million Instagram followers and has already generated hundreds of thousands of likes and comments.
The title is a play on the infamous prohibition-era Valentine’s Day massacre in 1929, when seven members and associates of Chicago’s North Side Gang were shot and killed.
In the image, the woman also has a swollen eye and is missing a tooth.
The painting, which many have speculated to be in Grosvenor Place in Margate, Kent, appears to show a 1950s housewife in a blue pinny and yellow wash mitts pushing her partner into a chest freezer.
Many have speculated that the last Banksy appeared in Grosvenor Place in Margate, Kent.
The last Banksy is rumored to be in Margate, Kent, given the painting’s white background.
Locals in Margate have begun gathering at the site of Banksy’s latest artwork.
Tourists have been gathering at the Grosvenor Place property in Margate, Kent, since it was revealed this morning.
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An eagle-eyed local in Margate claimed to have seen the person responsible, as speculation mounted that Banksy might live in the county.
“This was done yesterday morning, there were a couple of gentlemen, one doing the work and one videotaping it,” he said.
The artwork is believed to be a means of shedding light on issues of violence against women.
According to the Office for National Statistics: “In the year ending March 2020, the England and Wales Crime Survey estimated that 1.6 million women aged 16-74 in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse, around 7 percent of the female population.
Banksy has used Kent’s buildings as his canvas on more than one occasion, most recently in other seaside towns such as Folkestone and Dover.
His Brexit-themed Dover piece portrayed the image of a worker on a ladder removing one of the stars from the EU flag. The artwork, which was valued at £1 million, was controversially painted over, leaving a giant white square in its place.
Banksy has previously painted artwork on Valentine’s Day. In 2020, she confirmed that the artwork that appeared in Bristol of a girl shooting red flowers made of spray-painted ivy from a catapult was hers.
The piece was very special as it featured 3D flowers attached to the wall.
Local artist Pete Brown, 55, came to paint the sea, but chose to capture the scene for the artwork.
Tourists have been gathering at the site of the last Banksy which was confirmed by the artist this morning.
The property’s tenant, Polla Maria Oberscziam, stands in the driveway of her home where the new artwork now stands.
The artwork is believed to be a means of shedding light on issues of violence against women.
The piece was later vandalized, prompting the owners of the house in which the graffiti was recorded to cover one part of the ruined artwork while enclosing the other in a clear box to prevent further damage.
A new tag appeared on the site last year showing a masked man trying to pry the cover off, fueling speculation that Banksy himself may have reappeared to paint the same spot nearly two years later.
However, nothing was confirmed as the artist did not post anything about it on his account.
In December, the anonymous graffiti artist announced that he had created 50 screen prints that would be sold to raise money for a charity that supports the people of Ukraine.
Banksy previously confirmed that they had spent time in Ukraine after posting a video of an artist spray-painting designs in the war-torn country and speaking to locals.
In a piece the artist shared online, a gymnast can be seen balancing on her hands on the rubble at the bottom of an apartment building, which has been completely destroyed by Russian bombing.
Speculation had grown that the anonymous graffiti icon was in the war-torn country after a series of murals appeared in the town of Borodyanka, about an hour’s drive northwest of the capital.
Pictured: Banksy’s piece in Dover, a busy port connecting England to Calais in France
The original artwork was revealed on Valentine’s Day 2020 in the Barton Hill area of Bristol, Banksy’s hometown.
Another showed two children using a metal tank trap as a seesaw, while a separate piece in nearby Irpin showed a rhythmic gymnast waving a ribbon while wearing a neck brace.
However, the mural that Banksy chose to share with her Instagram followers was of the gymnast balancing on a damaged building.
He later shared a video on his Instagram account showing him completing the artwork in Ukraine.