So if a Banksy painting appeared in your house you were about to sell would you cancel the sale?

[JacobReesMogadishu]

Because this is what a woman in Bristol has done! She was about to exchange but has now taken her house off the market as she’s been told the painting/house could now be worth £5million.

Would someone actually pay £5million for the house? It looks a significant size painting but is on the actual house wall. So not sure how or if the painting could be removed to put in a gallery, etc. And I don’t think the people who could afford £5million want to live in what was a £300,000 house in Bristol. 🤷‍♀️

BBC link:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-55286462

Personally I can't even see how spray painting through a stencil can suddenly be worth £5 million

He created the stencil, it's not something he bought from Stencils R Us.

@Bluntness100

Some real bullshit on here. No one but no one, on seeing a painting that could be worth millions appear on the side of their house, would destroy it. You’d immediately try to work out if it could be protected, removed and sold. Who the fuck walks away from five million.

I sodding well would.

(Obviously I'd tell the papers and be photographed doing it )

What right does he have to graffiti someone’s property? If a teenage yob did this he’s be prosecuted. There is no difference in a yob and banksy. Its vandalism.

The difference, cos you’re clearly confused, is whe a yob does it it devalues your property. When banksy does it you become very wealthy.

Well the difference is obviously the millions that his artwork goes for🙄

I would sell it so I’m not against it being my house but the pp triggered my curiosity

Vandalism” is not a legal term – in UK law, it equates to criminal damage and may amount to an offence under section 1 of the Criminal Damage Act 1971 if it were to be an intentional or reckless destruction or damage of property belonging to another.

The law does not, however, draw a clear distinction between great works of street art that have been thoughtfully applied and the casual tagging of a wall. In both cases, if permission has not been sought, then an offence may be committed regardless of the merit of the artwork in question.

I'm with frog upthread.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-55286462

They haven't pulled out of the sale. They have briefly delayed it to protect the artwork.

So its the money issue to you?

Yes several million would make a huge difference to my life and probably most people's lives ,you don't have to actually like an artist's work to understand a lot of people would pay a lot of money for it .
I have been to the Louvre I have seen the Mona Lisa personally I didn't think it was all that tbh but I realise its value is way more than I could ever afford .

Interestingly the house owner says the sale is now back on, to the original buyer at the original price. He says he never stopped the sale, but put it on hold for 48hrs while he protected the artwork.

Curiouser and curiouser ....I wonder if he’s been told it will be too difficult to sell?

@TableCat

Yes because Banksy is a terrible yob. He has no right to vandalize anybody's property. Graffiti is anti social behaviour. His pictures are awful. But mumsnet for all it pretends to be middle class is clearly actually full of disgusting yobs with no idea of property rights. And more interested in money than being decent human beings. DISGUSTING!!!!

Unclench, dear. If it were me, I'd take the property off the market, sell the painting (or else sell the house and painting together) and compensate the person I was going to sell to out of the proceeds. Face it, it would be peanuts compared with a few million pounds. If that makes me indecent and disgusting, I'll live with it.