A building in the seaside town of Dover, England once adorned with a mural by the once-mysterious street artist Banksy has been torn down, CNN reported Wednesday. The mural, reportedly worth over $1 million, depicted a man in a hard hat on a ladder seemingly chipping away at the European Union flag.
It first appeared on the wall of the Castle Amusements building in 2017, shortly after the U.K. voted to leave the European Union.
In 2019, after the mural had become a tourist draw for Dover, a major port and entryway to the European Union, it was painted over with whitewash. The town’s leadership discussed the possibility of trying to restore the mural, but ultimately chose to demolish the building as part of a major development project comprised of “cultural and community engagement facilities, as well as residential dwellings.”
A spokesperson for the Dover City Council (DDC) told CNN that “prior to authorising the demolition, and having taken professional conservation advice, [the] DDC determined that the Banksy could not be viably conserved without considerable costs to local taxpayers, even if it were technically possible.”
The spokesperson said further that DDS Demolition, the project’s contractor, was attempting to conserve any parts of the Banksy artwork that it could, having already successfully removed stars and a section of the man and the ladder.
In a statement on the development project, the DDC said it was not involved in covering up the mural in 2019.