You are looking at a crime scene!

Residents and art lovers in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia are up in arms this week as a local work of street art by world-renowned graffiti artist Banksy was inadvertently destroyed by a building contractor installing plumbing into a wall of a café.

The stencil of a parachuting rat has been on that wall since the mid-1990s, and was one of the few surviving Banksy pieces still in its original space.

Local business owner Tina McKenzie was appalled at the destruction of such an iconic piece of street art, but claimed Banksy himself would probably “laugh it off.”

“They have unconsciously taken a part of Melbourne, taken a part of history which is really important to do with street art, and just order amoxil destroyed it without even thinking about it,” McKenzie said.

Before and after

“They wouldn’t even know that that’s a AUS$50 000 piece of art they’ve just sawed through, possibly even more,” she added.

Here’s some news reporting on this art travesty:

This is apparently the third time one of Banksy’s works in Australia has been destroyed, much to the chagrin of local art enthusiasts.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, a new piece was discovered on Wood Green High Road in North London. It shows a young boy kneeling over a sewing machine making Union Jack bunting. It’s thought to be a comment on the upcoming Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Out with the old, and in with the new?

[Thanks, Steyn]

[Source: Huffington Post, NY Daily News, ABC Australia, Key103]