Works by Banksy damaged or destroyed

This list is of works of guerrilla art by Banksy removed from their original locations or otherwise damaged or destroyed.

Removed from their original locations

• Cave art hoax with accompanying exhibit label, hung on a wall in the British Museum, removed after two or three days and subsequently accessioned; in 2005.

• Two works jetwashed away and a third work, of a boy holding a stereo and a teddy bear, the subject of legal action opposing its ablation by Hackney Council in order "to keep streets clean", in Dalston, London; in 2009.

• Vulture with fuel pump head on side of a container at Dungeness beach, Kent stolen in early September 2010.

• Rat, stolen from an electricity meter box outside the home of a well-known underwear designer in Melbourne, claimed to be by Banksy; the authenticity of this work was questioned, with some calling it a fake; in 2010.

• Mickey Mouse-inspired "Livin' the Dream", removed from Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles and destroyed; in 2011.

• Mural entitled "Caution", detached from a wall in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles; in 2011.
• Parachuting Rat in Melbourne, Australia was accidentally destroyed in May 2012 by builders installing new plumbing.

• "Slave Labour", a 2012 mural depicting a child making union flag bunting and regarded as a critical social commentary on the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, prised from the wall of a Poundland shop in Wood Green, Haringey, North London in 'mysterious circumstances' on 13 February 2013. An attempt to sell it in the USA 10 days later, at the Fine Arts Auction Miami art house on 23 February, was halted at the last minute after Haringey residents began a campaign for its return.

Concealed and/or defaced

Banksy's 2002 Pulp Fiction mural famously depicting bananas instead of guns was painted over by London Transport workers five years later.

• In March 2007 one of Banksy's early pieces, a 25 ft-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 tube station in London, was painted over by London Transport 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 wall mural 25 ft long in Cato Street, Easton, Bristol, marketed for sale with its attached house (at 21 Milvart Street) thrown in for free via a local gallery, was defaced with red paint. Celebrities had previously expressed interest in buying the work, and the gallery owner announced her intention to e-mail Banksy to see if he would restore the work.

• 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.

One nation under CCTV, 2008 mural removed (painted over) in 2009.

• In April 2009 "One Nation Under CCTV", an April 2008 mural, was removed (painted over) after London's Westminster City Council had stated in October 2008 that it would remove any graffiti, regardless of the reputation of its creator, and specifically stated that Banksy "has no more right to paint graffiti than a child." Robert Davis, chairman of the council planning committee told The Times newspaper: "If we condone this then we might as well say that any kid with a spray can is producing art."

• On 22 June 2009 a piece usually described as "Naked man hanging from a window" 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, spattered with blue paint in an overnight paint bomb attack.

• 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 example of Banksy's Melbourne street art, accidentally painted over by council contractors in March 2010, and finally destroyed by building work in May 2012.

• 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 his 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 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 child.

• On 6 July 2010, "Gorilla with Pink Face Mask" in Fishponds Road, Eastville, Bristol, was painted over by new owners of the building - by sheer coincidence on the same day that Bristol Zoo Gardens celebrated its 175th anniversary with "Wow! Gorillas", an event placing decorated life-size gorillas around the city for 10 weeks.

• In October 2011, Banksy's "Sniper" on Upper Maudlin Street, Bristol was vandalised by persons unknown with black spray paint.

• In 2011 a Banksy work in Boston's Chinatown was graffitied and partially painted over.

Demolished

• "The New Pollution" in St Werburghs, Bristol, was knocked down in 2006 by developers in order to build a new block of flats.

• "No Loitrin" on Essex Street in Cambridge, MA; removed by sandblasting.

See also

• Iconoclasm
• Banksy
• Parachuting Rat
• Slave Labour (mural)