Cleaners remove coronavirus-themed graffiti by Banksy from London Underground

By MiNDFOOD

An artwork by Banksy is seen on a London underground carriage. Instagram/Banksy /via REUTERS
An artwork by Banksy is seen on a London underground carriage. Instagram/Banksy /via REUTERS

Banksy has hit the streets once again, this time to create a graffiti piece on a London Underground train.

But by the time the renowned artist unveiled the work on his Instagram account, it had already been removed by cleaners.

The work, titled “If You Don’t Mask, You Don’t Get”, was painted inside one of the service carriages on the Tube.

It featured numerous stencils of his trademark rats in various corners of the train, including one pictured sneezing across the carriage window.

But when the Transport for London (TfL) cleaning crews came across the art, they treated it “like any other graffiti on the network”, a TfL source told the BBC.

“The job of the cleaners is to make sure the network is clean, especially given the current climate,”  said the source.

Banksy posted a video to his social media, in which a man presumed to be the artist disguised himself as a cleaner and boarded the train with stencils.

In a statement, TfL officials said the artwork was removed due to a strict anti-graffiti policy.

“We’d like to offer Banksy the chance to do a new version of his message for our customers in a suitable location,” read the statement.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCn800cFIbe/

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