The artwork depicts a 1950s-eque housewife wearing a frilly cleaning apron and bright yellow rubber gloves. She also has a black eye, a bruised cheek and broken teeth. The apparent victim of domestic abuse appears to be tucking away her abuser into a real-life freezer positioned in front of the mural. Drawings of his legs poke out of the other side.
Thanet Council workers hauled away the large, white chest freezer that was central to the artwork, citing health and safety concerns. A frying pan, beer bottle and broken white plastic chair that were also seemingly part of the installation were removed along with the freezer.
“Shame Thanet Council have removed the fridge when they do nothing to prevent fly tipping the rest of the time,” one Instagram user wrote.
“Powerful, shame the council had to destroy it by removing the props!!!!! Typical takes them months to move anything or do any repairs normally,” another quipped.
Others, however, argued the “whole point” of graffiti is to be temporary.
Many online applauded the piece that Banksy called “Valentine’s Day Mascara” for championing the issue of domestic abuse on a day normally reserved for celebrating romantic relationships.
“Thank you for highlighting the lengths some women must go to in order to save their own lives and the lives of their children,” one person wrote. “Thank you Banksy, coming to Margate & brightening up peoples day again,” another said.
Some 2.4 million adults in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2022, according to most recent government data. The majority of victims are women — and abuse worsened during the coronavirus pandemic, women’s rights groups say.
The murders of two young women walking home in Britain, Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa, in recent years have also brought the issue to the fore and sparked international headlines.
A social media post by the elusive British artist had been liked more than 1.4 million times on Instagram as of Wednesday. Banksy has not made any public comment on the dismantling of the artwork.
“A fridge freezer which is believed to have been part of the installation has been removed by council operatives on the grounds of safety as it was on public land,” Thanet Council said in a statement.
“The fridge freezer is now in storage and will be returned once it has been made safe to the public. We will be contacting the owner of the property to discuss the options to preserve the artwork for the district.”
The council did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post on how long the freezer had been there or to criticisms of delays in removing trash.
The graffiti is painted on the wall of a privately owned property. A resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly, told the BBC they were “absolutely upset” by the council’s actions. “It was part of the art, they should be very happy because Margate could get bigger attention, positive attention.”
The secretive street artist’s works sell for millions and pop up across the world causing a buzz in the art world and on social media, most recently in war-torn Ukraine, as well as in Jerusalem, Venice and Paris.
Despite being one of the world’s best-known artists, Banksy has managed to maintain his anonymity since he rose to fame in the 1990s.