UK council returns Banksy freezer

A chest freezer forming part of a work by British street artist Banksy was returned on Wednesday a day its removal by the local council for "health and safety" reasons.

The mural appeared in Margate in southeast England on Tuesday, depicting a 1950s-style housewife with a swollen eye and a missing tooth seemingly shoving her male partner into a real chest freezer.

Despite protests from locals taking pictures of the mural, at the end of a terrace of houses in a rundown part of the seaside town, council workers turned up to throw the freezer into a van.

The local council announced on Wednesday however that it had returned the old appliance.

"The freezer which council operatives removed from the Banksy installation in Margate has now been made safe," said a statement from Thanet District Council, which administers Margate.

"It has been returned to its original position at the site of the artwork today."

The council said it had had to remove the freezer to carry out works to it "for health and safety reasons".

The council acknowledged that Banksy had raised an important issue in dealing with domestic abuse in his latest work.

It was in touch with the owner of the property to find out what they intended to do to preserve it, it added.

Coveted street art

The elusive Banksy, whose true identity remains unconfirmed, posted three images of the work -- which he entitled "Valentine's Day Mascara" -- on his Instagram account.

Two of the images were close-ups showing the woman, wearing a blue pinafore and yellow washing-up gloves, smiling but seemingly with a battered face.

The removal of the freezer prompted bemusement among bystanders.

"People were sort of like, 'Stop, stop, you know, this is a Banksy, right?'" local resident Laura Holden, 35, told AFP.

"And they (the workers) were like, 'Yeah, no, we've got permission to take everything away'.

"It felt like it was part of the piece, and perhaps Banksy intended that all along -- because we all know how hard it is to get Thanet District Council to come and collect our rubbish," she quipped.

Banksy's art has come a long way from its origins on the streets of Bristol in the 1990s.

A version of his iconic "Girl with Balloon" sold at auction for just over £1 million in 2018 -- only to start self-destructing due to a shredder hidden by Banksy in the frame.

The renamed "Love is in the Bin" then sold for a staggering £18.6 million in 2021 -- a record for a Banksy.

© 2023 AFP