• In March 2007 one of Banksy's early pieces, a -long artwork featuring a collection of blue shapes with the artist's trademark tag, on the side of garages in Albion Road,
Easton, Bristol, was mistakenly painted over by graffiti-removal contractors Nordic. They had been asked by Bristol City Council to tackle graffiti adjacent to the Banksy work, but wrongly targeted the piece itself. Within days someone sprayed the words "
Wot no Banksy?" over the contractors' plain paintwork. • In April 2007 Banksy's
famous 2002 piece depicting
John Travolta and
Samuel L. Jackson's
Pulp Fiction characters pointing bananas instead of guns, on a wall near
Old Street station in London, was painted over by
Transport for London workmen despite having an estimated value of more than £300,000 at the time. Asked to comment on the mural's destruction, a Transport for London spokesman said "Our graffiti removal teams are staffed by professional cleaners not professional art critics." • In April 2007 a four-year-old -long wall mural in Cato Street, Easton, Bristol, marketed for sale with its attached house (at 21 Milvart Street) included was subsequently defaced with red paint. Celebrities had previously expressed interest in buying the work, and the gallery owner contacted Banksy for permission to
restore the work. Banksy however declined the offer, stating that overwriting and defacement was an inevitable reality of street art. • In November 2007 a mural of a policeman stopping and searching a young girl in
Glastonbury, created in connection with the
Glastonbury Festival, was whitewashed over. • In 2008
The Little Diver or
Diving Bell, previously
protected with a
Perspex sheet by
Melbourne City Council in Australia, incensing many street artists, was covered with silver paint poured behind the sheet and later tagged with the slogan "Banksy woz ere". The image was almost completely obliterated. '' in 2008 • In April 2009
One Nation Under CCTV, an April 2008 mural, was abated after
Westminster City Council had stated in October 2008 that it would remove any graffiti, regardless of the reputation of its creator. • On 22 June 2009,
Well Hung Lover, on the side of Brook Sexual Health Clinic in
Park Street, Bristol, and voted for retention by 93% of the public in a 2006 council poll, was spattered with blue paint in an overnight paint bomb attack. • One of Banksy's earliest, best known and most prominent works,
The Mild Mild West, featuring a teddy bear throwing a
Molotov cocktail at police, located on the side of a building in Cheltenham Road, Bristol, was twice defaced with paint during 2009. It was cleaned up both times, but was damaged in the process; the paint used to attack it is still visible. • In September 2009 a mural of the
British royal family, featured on the cover of a single by
Blur, was accidentally painted over by workmen employed by
Hackney Council, London. •
Parachuting Rat, one of the last surviving examples of Banksy's
Melbourne street art, was accidentally painted over by council contractors in March 2010. • In February 2011 a mural behind Westwood Village Urban Outfitters in
Westwood Village, Los Angeles, depicting a child holding a machine gun loaded with coloured crayons, was defaced with black paint, just days before the
83rd Academy Awards for which Banksy's documentary film
Exit Through The Gift Shop had been nominated. • In May 2011 a Banksy piece drawn in October 2010 around an extractor fan on the Grosvenor Hotel in
Torquay, Devon was destroyed. It depicted a child drawing a robot. Within a week of its appearance the owners announced plans to cover it with protective Perspex amid newspaper speculation that it had increased the value of the property by £150,000. Vandals smashed the Perspex screen on 31 May 2011 to attack the mural with paint stripper, removing the image of the child. • In July 2011
Gorilla in a Pink Mask (also known as
Gorilla with Pink Face Mask) in Fishponds Road,
Eastville, Bristol, was painted over by the new owner of the building, who was unaware of Banksy's reputation or the value of the artwork. The mural was partly restored. • In October 2011, Banksy's
Sniper on Upper Maudlin Street, Bristol was vandalised by graffiti artists apparently supporting
King Robbo, spraying the words "Team Robbo" in black spray paint. • In 2011 a Banksy work in
Boston Massachusetts's Chinatown was graffitied and partially painted over. • On 31 December 2013
Praying Boy, located just off of Main Street in
Park City, Utah, United States, was vandalized with spray paint. The piece was originally created by Banksy in January 2010 during the
Sundance Film Festival. Banksy was in Park City promoting his documentary
Exit Through The Gift Shop, which was featured in the festival.
Praying Boy was vandalized by California artist David Noll, who claimed mental health issues led to his actions. He smashed a glass case meant to protect the piece and defaced the artwork. He also attempted to vandalize another Banksy piece in the area depicting a
videographer, but was unable to break through that work's protective case. Noll pled guilty to a third-degree felony count of
criminal mischief, was assigned community service, given five years
probation, and was ordered to pay restitution to the building's owners. He apologized in court for the vandalism. The piece was restored by painting conservator Deborah Uhl, resulting in 70 hours of work from January through April 2014. • In October 2014, an "Anti-immigration birds" mural was painted over after
Clacton-on-Sea's local council received a complaint; it was not then known that the work was Banksy's. • In February 2015 a
Bomb Hugger stencil Banksy sprayed 2002 in
Hamburg was destroyed by the paint that dripped down from a graffiti above. • On 15 October 2015, a work painted by Banksy in
Harringay, London depicting Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his son
Necmettin Bilal Erdoğan, portrayed as thieves running off with a big sack full of money, was partially painted over, covering both of their faces. • In January 2016,
The Son of a Migrant from Syria, the Banksy mural at the entrance to the former
Calais Jungle refugee camp which depicted
Apple founder
Steve Jobs as a refugee, was defaced with the words "LONDON CALLiNG", with Jobs' body taking the place of the
i; the body of the
i was not painted but the dot was, partially, covering Jobs' head; further defacement has followed. • In 2018, the Astronaut was painted over, Moon Street, Bristol. Streetview • In September 2018, a shop shutter mural on Park Row, Bristol, credited as being made by Banksy in the 1990s—prior to his stencil art period—was partially painted over by new tenants who were unaware of its origins. The building was previously a skate shop, the owner of which Banksy was friends with. • In August 2019, a Banksy mural depicting a worker chiselling away one of the
Flag of Europe's gold stars–a reference to the on-going
Brexit situation in the UK–was found to have been painted over with white paint and covered in scaffolding. The building upon which the artwork appeared had, at the time, been scheduled for demolition. • In February 2020, ''
Valentine's Banksy'', a work depicting a young girl firing a slingshot of flowers, was defaced just days after being created. • In April 2020, someone added a large surgical mask to Banksy's
Girl with a Pierced Eardrum mural in Bristol's Harbourside in reference to the coronavirus pandemic. • In October 2020, a mural called
Hula Hooping Girl appeared in
Nottingham, alongside a
bike with a missing tire. On 20 November 2020, the bike was removed from the site of the mural. It was unclear whether it was removed by
Nottingham City Council or was stolen. On 22 November, a replacement bike was put in place. However, as the bike model and bike lock are different from the originals, it is unclear if this was replaced by the council, a member of the public or Banksy himself. • Between 15 and 16 March 2021, a Banksy mural in
Reading was vandalised by Graffiti artists that support
King Robbo spraying Team Robbo with red spray paint. • In August 2024, a mural of a rhinoceros, appearing to mount an abandoned
Nissan Micra with a traffic cone on its bonnet in
Charlton, London was marked with a white dollar symbol and letter V tag by a 'random youth' shortly after its creation. ==Demolished or erased==