The site of Banksy’s latest work, an outside wall of a derelict farmhouse in the seaside town of Herne Bay in Kent, has been demolished.
The mural, titled Morning is Broken, depicted a silhouetted young boy – next to a silhouetted cat in a window – opening corrugated iron “curtains”.
The work was confirmed in three photographs posted on Wednesday on the anonymous street artist’s Instagram account. The piece is shown in a full-length image of the derelict property, which was covered in ivy, and had peeling white paintwork and missing roof slates on a side building.
There is a closeup of the artwork in another photo and the third shows demolition work that is being carried out on Blacksole Farm.
The final photograph shows the wall on which the artwork originally appeared, with the image also showing a digger, a skip and a pile of brick rubble on the ground as a workman looks on.
The skip company told the PA news agency that the bin which appears in one of the photographs was at a property in Herne Bay and the firm’s only involvement in the project was in providing the bin.
The site, owned by Kitewood, is earmarked for dozens of new homes and demolition work started on Tuesday, with contractors unaware at the time that the artwork was by Banksy.
One of the contractors, George Caudwell, told website KentOnline: “We had no idea it was a Banksy. It made me feel sick realising it was a Banksy – we were gutted.
“We started demolishing it yesterday. The landowner watched us do it and didn’t know either.”
The demolition comes only a month after a Banksy artwork was dismantled numerous times after appearing in Margate, another seaside town in Kent. The mural, titled Valentine’s Day Mascara, appeared to be on the theme of domestic abuse and combating violence against women.
The mural depicts a caricature of a 1950s housewife, wearing a blue pinny and yellow washing-up gloves, with a swollen eye and a missing tooth, who was seen pushing her male partner into a chest freezer. A real-life freezer incorporated into the piece was removed twice after the artwork was discovered.
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The mural was subsequently relocated to the town’s Dreamland theme park, which said it remains “accessible to all those who want to come and enjoy it”.
Banksy has recently undertaken philanthropic projects for Ukraine. Last December, the artist announced they had created 50 screenprints that would be sold to raise funds for a charity supporting the people of Ukraine.
The artist previously said they had spent time in the country since the Russian invasion, after posting a video of an artist spray-painting designs and speaking to local people.
