Demolition contractor destroys Banksy's boy and cat at a farmhouse window

A demolition contractor employed to demolish a farmhouse unwittingly destroyed a Banksy painting of a boy and a cat. The painting, as usual was very clever. They saw the painting but had no idea about its value.

Banksy's Boy and Cat is no longer. Image in public domain.

The Internet tells me that the highest prices paid for a Banksy painting are around the £16 million mark! It seems that this contractor has destroyed a potentially very valuable item of art. Perhaps they destroyed something which was worth far more than the value of their contract. In fact, I am sure that that is the case.

The painting was, as mentioned, very clever. It was on the first floor of a farmhouse. A window had been boarded up. The boarding had been painted white. On either side of the window were corrugated iron sheets which has been indented on either side as you can see in the painting.

Banksy used the raw materials in front of him i.e. the white boarding and the indentations in the corrugated sheeting to create is painting of a tousled haired boy with his cat. The corrugated iron sheets became curtains. Clever.

The farmhouse stood in Herne Bay, on the north Kent coast in the UK. Banksy featured the destruction of his work of art on his Instagram webpage where he has 12 million followers.

He shared two photographs of the intact work of art along with a third showing diggers demolishing it. Interesting that. Did he take the photograph? And if so, why didn't he stop them? We don't know the back story.

Image: The Guardian. This shows the location of the painting on the building. 

But the destruction of the work of art has become art itself.

Apparently, the farmhouse was 500 hundred years old. It was being demolished to make way for new homes.

One of the workers unsurprisingly said: "We had no idea it was a Banksy. It made me feel sick realising it was a Banksy - we were gutted. The landowner watched us do it and didn't know either."

The landowner has demolished and destroyed something that might have been worth about £1 million! He probably threw away as much money in a matter of minutes as he'd make from his development. Not clever. A nice comparison with Banksy's clever painting.

Does Banksy deliberately create works of art as temporary items with their destruction being part of the art?

I'm surprised that they didn't recognise the painting as a Banksy because he is so well known. His artwork is iconic and has been well publicised.