Camden New Journal - News: There;s a twist in the tale as Bansky gets Perspex appeal

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Camden New Journal - by SIMON WROE
Published: 13 March 2008

Builders Hughton Platt and Tommy Kerr admire the Banksy art, complete with its new square perspex sheet

There’s a twist in the tale as Banksy gets perspex appeal

IT is often overlooked by passers-by, but look closely at these before and after pictures of the Banksy stencil in King’s Cross and you might start to smell a rat.
It seems the street artist’s rebellious rodent – sprayed on to an extension of the Town Hall, no less – has two very different tales to tell of its treatment by Camden Council.
The latest picture, taken this week, shows the fancy rat behind a protective perspex sheet, installed by borough workmen.
An earlier photo shows the rodent
looking faint, the lighter stonework immediately around it suggesting the work was waterblasted.
A council spokeswoman denied they had ever tried to remove the rat, but admitted they had waterblasted the whole building last year “to clean it up”.
The council refused to be drawn on whether their attitude to the artist, whose work now sells for up to £1 million, had changed.
A Town Hall spokeswoman said: “We recognise the popularity and cultural importance of his work.
“We have taken the initiative to preserve the rat.”

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