2:10pm Sunday 14th March 2010
By Naomi Loomes
A diligent council worker painted over professional wall-art after mistaking it for illegal graffiti.
A group of street artists were commissioned by The Duke of York’s in Preston Circus, Brighton, to paint a series of images to promote a new film about high-profile graffiti artist Banksy.
They spent hours painting four images on the walls of the Grade II listed cinema in front of crowds of people.
The event was organised to promote the debut screening of Exit Through The Gift Shop, a documentary about Banksy.
But within 24 hours the art, which was supposed to be on display for two weeks, had been painted over with white paint by a member of Brighton and Hove City Council's Cityclean team.
The images, entitled Banksy, Funky Red Dog, Snumb23 and Wet Paint, were on the wall facing on to Stanley Road and on another wall next to the fire station.
A spokeswoman for the council said the graffiti was spotted by their Cityclean staff during 'routine patrol' last Friday night.
She said: "We weren’t informed about the paintings being commissioned and therefore assumed they had appeared without permission from the cinema owners."
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