Banksy, cleaners erase his work on London Underground

Banksy’s latest work, some rats drawn in a London Underground carriage for an unusual pro-mask campaign during the Covid emergency, has been erased by cleaners at Transport for London (TfL), the company that runs the British capital’s public transport system.

The work was titled If You Don’t Mask , You Don’t Get (“If You Don’t Mask, You Don’t Make It”), and was promptly removed by TfL, just hours after it was made. The BBC reports that a TfL spokesperson said Banksy’s images “were treated like any other graffiti on the network. The job of the cleaners is to ensure the network is clean, especially in the current situation” (the reference is obviously to the coronavirus emergency). However, the company appreciated “the encouraging sentiment of the citizenry” and offered to allow Banksy the opportunity to create a new version of the work in a “suitable location.”

“Graffiti,” explained Tom Edwards, a BBC journalist who specializes in transportation, “is seen in the transportation world as something that contributes to an ominous and unsafe atmosphere. But surely there are also those who say graffiti should be kept or protected as an art form that can also have something of an academic feel. Banksy, who moreover has previously deliberately destroyed his own artwork, knew exactly what would happen to his work if executed inside a subway car. And perhaps that was part of the plan.”

Banksy, cleaners erase his work on London Underground

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