'Insensitive' Banksy Mural Near Site Of Girl's Death To Be Moved Into Museum
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A mural painted by Banksy is to be moved to another 'less sensitive' location because it is currently near the site of the tragic death of a young girl.
It’s just a horrible coincidence, but the mural happens to depict two children in an inflatable dinghy floating away while a person drinking pumps it up.
That’s an issue because a young girl was killed in the area near to Gorleston Beach in Norfolk when an inflatable trampoline that she was on burst.
You can see why people might get a little bit upset about that, can’t you?
The piece appeared on a wall near the beach in August 2021, but the artist can’t possibly have known that Ava-May Littleboy died in tragic circumstances there in 2018.
So, the piece has been covered up by Great Yarmouth Borough Council and it will eventually be moved somewhere else that is a bit more suitable.
The council has said they’ll move it to the Great Yarmouth Time and Time Museum.
Carl Smith, the leader of the local authority, said that the ‘local circumstances’ that could cause offence would not have been known to Banksy.
The painting was one of several to show up last summer after the elusive street artist threw several murals up across the east of England as part of his Great British Spraycation project.
Three-year-old Ava-May, from Lower Somersham in Suffolk, died after suffering a head injury when she was thrown from the inflatable trampoline.
Her father Nathan Rowe said that he ‘appreciated’ the action taken by the council in covering up the mural, adding that he believed Banksy to have had ‘the best of intentions’.
So, it’ll be moved to the museum’s reception area after being restored by specialists.
The work is expected to take around three days.
Mr Smith said: "We thank Banksy for all the wonderful art work that he gifted the borough.
"While a lot of his work is designed for a specific location, in this case the local circumstances would not have been known to him.
"We have worked with the family concerned, and they support the decision to find a new, less sensitive, location for the work."
The chairman of the Great Yarmouth museums committee Geoff Freeman said Banksy's visit had been ‘a big event in the recent history of Great Yarmouth’ and added: “It is great to be able to incorporate it within our exhibits.”
Options for a more permanent home for the mural are being explored.
