Germany's Last Remaining Banksy Piece Has Been 'Vandalized'

This article originally appeared on VICE Germany.

An unidentified person has "destroyed" the only remaining Banksy piece in Germany. The piece Bomb Hugger in Hamburg got marred by the word GRAFITTI [sic] painted in blue paint, and now the stencil of a little girl hugging a bomb is essentially illegible now.

Between 2002 and 2003 the world's most famous street artist visited Hamburg and left four pieces in the wake, but three of them were eroded in the following decade. Of course, at this point Banksy's art has become so popular that his images can be found in museums, books, and overrated movies; you might argue that the original premise of street art—its transient nature, its democratic and anarchic aspects—doesn't apply to his work any more. Which is why the Spiegelberger foundation decided to cover Bomb Hugger with a piece of acrylic glass two years ago: the possibility of some drunk idiot defacing this criticism of war with a tag or a penis doodle must have been too serious.

Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to save it from being vandalized. According to newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, there's currently a discussion concerning the different ways of restoring Bomb Hugger to its original state and better protecting it in the future.

If you're fond of street art and graffiti you should be more than irritated by these ideas. Even Banksy himself is known to reject the commercialization and idealization of his art. He shows up, paints, and disappears into anonymity—like most of his fellow street artists. If the artist himself doesn't seem to mind that his work will be modified, copied, painted over, or reinterpreted, why should outsiders turn his pieces into museum installation? Does the Spielberger foundation not get street art, or is it merely trying to maintain its status as a tourist destination?

Some people on Twitter suspect Banksy's behind the whole thing. Indeed, you can't really help asking yourself if the offending graffiti is an artistic statement in itself. Graffiti—normal graffiti, the sort put out by non-Banksys across the globe—is supposed to be accessible and visible to everyone, part of the urban landscape. And if someone who's not even part of the process decides to cover street art up with a pane of glass just because it's made by someone whom people actually make money off now—while other writers' work is classified as criminal damage—then let's spray all over it and let the paint run down behind the protective glass pane.

By now the blue letters have reportedly been removed. The question of whether the restoration or, any of it for that matter, makes any sense remains. Twitter user @oma_kazi sums it up nicely: „glaube [sic!] banksy hat sich selbst zerstört, kunst im käfig—wollte der garantiert nie sein!" ["I think Banksy has destroyed himself, art in a cage—he certainly never wanted that."]

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