In the past few days, murals matching the artist’s style had popped up in cities like Great Yarmouth, Gorleston and Cromer. These included a couple dancing over a bus stop, a young boy building sandcastles, and a number of hermit crabs.
However, one of the pictures became a target of vandalism a short time later. As can be seen in the photos, someone had covered the Banksy representation of a rat drinking cocktail in a deck chair in the town of Lowestoft with white paint.
The District Council of East Suffolk was “horrified” on Sunday, but announced that it would have the work of art restored. They are in contact with specialists and are hopeful that this will succeed, it said in a message on the website of the East Suffolk Council. The perpetrator was also caught fresh by security guards. This may have prevented worse. The police were also involved.
Banksy put an end to speculation about the origin of the pictures on Friday evening when he published a video on his Instagram appearance. You can see an unidentifiable person driving the caravan from place to place.
The title of the video is “A Great British Spraycation” – a play on words from Staycation (vacation at home) and Spray – Banksy’s preferred working method. Sometimes you can also observe how the works of art are created.
The English North Sea coast – compared to the Netherlands, so to speak – was once a popular holiday destination for many Britons, but has been economically behind for decades and is now rather poor.