Saw this on Supertouch and it really pissed me off:
"From the unbelievable but true files comes word that rail workers in London employed to remove graffiti around stations and on trains have been given emergency art lessons so they don’t paint over pieces by BANKSY. The training comes after an “unenlightened” worker recently painted over one of the artist’s landmark murals of a monkey blowing up a bunch of bananas with dynamite on Leake Street near the Waterloo tube Station. In an effort to ensure that no more of the artist’s work is destroyed, all city cleaning contractors have been told to notify managers whenever they encounter graffiti that might be Banksy’s, which is then examined by the city’s resident art experts. Here’s the best part: After determining that a piece is in fact genuine, the graffiti may then be removed and auctioned for charity…"
Why should this one artist get so much attention from the government now? Everywhere I go in London now, his pieces have been "protected", usually by a sheet of see-through acrylic drilled into a wall. Talk about hype.......The only positive issue is the charity selling of his art, I guess.