Artist vows to destroy Banksy mural after buying it for £561,000 at auction
'This is a blow for street art. It shouldn’t be bought and sold'
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Your support makes all the difference.An American artist paid $730,000 (£561,000) for a mural by Banksy painted on the side of a North London Poundland, then vowed to destroy the piece in protest.
“Slave Labour” – which depicts a young child on his knees at a sewing machine, producing a string of Union Jack bunting – was painted on the side of the budget store in Wood Green in 2012.
The piece was believed to be a protest against the mass production of souvenirs for the London Olympics and was removed from the wall in 2013.
Ron English purchased the work on Wednesday (14 November) at an auction in Los Angeles, and revealed plans to whitewash it in protest against street art being bought and sold.
“My idea for this painting is to whitewash it for my good pal Banksy, I only wish I could’ve spent more money for it,” he said.
“I’m going to paint it white again, I’m done. This is a blow for street art. It shouldn’t be bought and sold. I’m going to paint over it and just include it in one of the walls in my house. We’re tired of people stealing our stuff off the streets and re-selling it so I’m just going to buy everything I can get my hands on and whitewash it.”
English hopes to sell the whitewashed mural for millions of dollars.
The news comes just a month after a print of Banksy’s ”Girl With Balloon” sold for $1.1 million (£838,00) before being shredder installed in the picture frame by the acclaimed artist.
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