Banksy work removed and put in museum due to local sensitivity
A new Banksy painting discovered in Gorleston. - Credit: A still from Banky's website
One of Banksy's Norfolk artworks depicting children being flung into the air on a rubber dinghy is being moved away from where a girl died after being thrown from an inflatable.
The piece will be removed from its place on Gorleston beach within the next week and put in a local museum.
The Banksy piece depicted a drinking man pumping up a rubber dinghy to the point where it flies away, with two children thrown into the air along with it.
Three-year-old Ava-May Littleboy, from Lower Somersham, Suffolk, died after she was thrown higher than a house from an exploding inflatable at Gorleston-on-Sea in Norfolk in July 2018, an inquest was told.
The piece has been covered since August.
The council said it is now being moved due to local sensitivities.
The painting, done during Banksy's 'Great British Spraycation' in Norfolk and Suffolk during August 2021, will instead be housed in the reception area of the Time and Tide Museum in Great Yarmouth and will be free to view for the public.
Council leader Carl Smith said: “We thank Banksy for all the wonderful artwork 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.
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“We have worked with the family concerned and they support the decision to find a new, less sensitive, location for the work.
"We continue to celebrate his gifts to the town and as this is creating so much interest, the council has today installed barriers at the bus stop shelter at Admiralty Road and has arranged protection of all authenticated Banksy artworks in the public realm with Perspex covers.
“We are asking visitors to come and enjoy this fabulous work but please be respectful to local residents."
Work to remove the painting will start next week and is expected to take three days.
After its stay at Time and Tide Museum, the piece will be found a more permanent home by Great Yarmouth Borough Council to ensure it remains on public display locally.
The removal of this work comes after a Lowestoft landlord reportedly sold the Banksy on the side of his business for up to £2 million.
