‘Valentine’s Day mascara’: new Banksy piece with apparent domestic violence theme dismantled by local council

Hours after mysterious graffiti artist Banksy claimed a new piece of artwork in Kent, themed around domestic abuse and fighting violence against women, it has been dismantled by the local council.

But Thanet District Council representatives say they will restore the piece, “once it has been made safe to the public”.

The painting, on a wall in Grosvenor Place in the Kent town of Margate, first appeared on Monday, local media report. It showed a 1950s housewife, wearing a classic blue pinny and yellow washing up gloves, with a swollen eye and a missing tooth seemingly shoving her male partner into a chest freezer.

The elusive artist posted a series of three photos of the new piece on his Instagram account on Tuesday morning, captioning them, “Valentine’s Day mascara”. The photo series zoomed in twice to show a close-up of the woman’s smiling - but seemingly battered - face.

The new artwork had featured a variety of rubbish on the ground in front of the artwork, including a broken white garden chair, a blue crate and an empty beer bottle. But a resident of the property where the painting was created - who asked not to be named - told the PA news agency the freezer and other items had been removed “very quickly” and put into a truck around midday.

“I’m absolutely upset because it’s not really nice. It was part of the art, they should be very happy because Margate could get bigger attention, positive attention,” she said. “Why did they move those parts? It’s just silly.”

The woman claimed she asked the people who removed the items why they were doing so and they replied: “someone told them on the council, they are just doing the task, it’s not their idea but they must do it.”

“Earlier, no-one was interested if the rubbish was on the street. I mean, they were, but not that quickly,” she said. “Even if you report something to them about taking the rubbish, they are acting one or two weeks later, not immediately.”

The tenant said her landlady had tried to send people to guard the artwork, but they were unable to do so before the pieces were removed.

In a statement, Thanet District Council said a fridge-freezer which was part of the installation was removed by council operatives on the grounds of safety, as it was on public land.

“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,” a spokesperson said.

The Instagram post had received thousands of comments, with commenters speculating the Bristol-born artist was referencing fighting violence against women on Valentine’s Day.

Banksy recently confirmed he had spent time in Ukraine, posting a video of an artist spray-painting designs in the war-torn country and speaking to locals.

One mural depicted a man resembling Russian President Vladimir Putin being flipped during a judo match with a little boy. Another showed two children using a metal tank trap as a seesaw.

The graffiti artist posted three images of one of the murals - a female gymnast balancing on a damaged building - on Instagram in November, with the caption simply reading “Borodyanka, Ukraine”.

Borodyanka was on the main axis of the Russian advance on Kyiv during the invasion of the country on 24 February. The town was shelled by Russian forces and several apartment buildings, as well as a bridge into the town were destroyed. Survivors starved as a result of supplies being unable to reach the area, New York Times reported.

It was liberated in April, having been occupied by Russian forces since February. Since then, the town has been the focus of reconstruction efforts, with several tower blocks demolished as a result of damage caused by the fighting.

In December, Banksy announced he had had created 50 screenprints which would be sold to raise funds for a charity supporting the people of Ukraine.