Banksy’s Slave Labour

It has an Industrial Revolution quality (Source: Trifunov 2016, np link).

[It is] widely considered to be a critique of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations (Source: BBC TV News 2013).

[It] act[s] as a stark reminder of the dark, inhumane measures taken to produce mass merchandise for the Queen’s diamond jubilee and the London Olympics (Source: Saunders 2023, np link).

[It is] a more general criticism of Royalism in the UK, and the dark consumerism that underlies Jubilee fanaticism …(Source: Argun 2024, np link).

… [and] rais[es] questions about the role and responsibility of the monarchy in addressing such issues (Source: Anon 2023, np link).

The piece rapidly gained notoriety, not for its challenging depiction of a small child at work in a far-eastern sweat shop … but for its equally swift removal and moniterisation … (Source: Straffon 2022, np link).

… [after it] appeared … on 15 May 2012 … was removed … during February 2013 and ended up in an art auction in Miami (Source: Wright 2013, np link).

Slave Labour … first appeared just prior to the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of 2012, on the wall of a Poundland store in North London’s Wood Green (Source: M2 Presswire 2013, np).

At the time, the store was heavily stocked with Jubilee merchandise, some of which – the plastic Union Jack ‘bunting’ emerging from the boy’s sewing machine – formed part of the original piece, before the local residents stripped it bare. This ‘product placement’ draws attention to the conditions of production of these disposable nationalistic icons … Slave Labour’s in situ location, and three-dimensional bunting, implicates the Poundland store and its customers (Source: Hansen & Flynn 2015, 901).

A professor specialising in Bansky believes it is the Bristol-born artist’s work. … Professor Paul Gough, from University of the West of England … suggests the image has all the hallmarks of a genuine Banksy. He said: ‘The stencil is very well cut, the quality of the spraying and that unique feathered edge that he is able to achieve when painting white on to black is reminiscent of several other pieces in the capital. The bunting is a brilliant touch, short-lived but with lasting impact in the memory given this royal anniversary year'(Source: Anon 2012, np link).

Slave Labour gained significant media coverage when it appeared in May 2012 (Source: Adewumi 2024, p.54).

Banksy is the world’s most famous and expensive urban artist (Source: Reyburn 2013, np link).

Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams [comprise] … graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique (Source: M2 Presswire 2013, np).

[He] is one of the few major artists who remains anonymous, although like fictional characters – Robin Hood, the Scarlet Pimpernel or Zorro – his anonymity is in itself a badge of celebrity (Source: Barrett 2019, p.13 link).

[He] began his career spray-painting buildings and bridges in his home city of Bristol in southwest England. His often satirical images include two police officers kissing, armed riot police with yellow smiley faces and a chimpanzee with a sign bearing the words ‘Laugh now, but one day I’ll be in charge.’ Original Banksy works now sell for up to hundreds of thousands of dollars and the artist has become an international celebrity. He has created sequences for The Simpsons [see our page on the Banksy-directed ‘couch gag’ here] and directed an Academy Award-nominated documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop. His works are still sometimes obliterated by zealous local officials, street cleaners or – as in this case – taken off buildings along with a chunk of wall for private sale (Source: Associated Press 2013, np link).

Banksy … is a shadowy figure in the art world. He doesn’t give interviews and has gone from being a ‘guerrilla street artist’ to a celebrated one worth millions. There is tension in those two things: On the one hand, he’s a rebel, a critic of both the traditional art world and the government, but on the other hand, his street art is fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars and threatening to erode his street cred (Source: Peralta 2013, np link).

Despite his suspected US$20 million fortune resulting from consumer-driven art sales, Banksy still constantly criticizes the thriving capitalist system of the modern world in his works, drawing attention to the dangerous effects of an ever-growing interconnected economy. … It is clear that Banksy is pushing for change (Source: Brenner 2019, p.35).

[His] art addresses themes that are explicitly political in nature and often satirical in tone, taking aim at the cruelty and venality at the heart of contemporary capitalism. His most famous works include ‘One Nation Under CCTV’ (a commentary on the pervasiveness of state surveillance in the UK); ‘Flying Balloon Girl’ (a silhouette of a girl being lifted up by balloons that’s painted on the side of the Israeli West Bank barrier, symbolizing a desire for freedom from occupation); and ‘Slave Labour’ (Source: Butler & Loacker 2022, p.3 link).

His works often mock society but are also usually open to interpretation. In this sense, the majority of his pieces can be viewed as promoting social change. Using a unique and recognizable stenciled style, his graffiti and the occasional statue have been shocking the modern art world. Each of his works are left in hidden places, often found by passersby in strange and secluded locations. No matter the placing or content of his works, each depicts controversial political messages, alluding to very specific aspects of modern society Banksy seems to think are deserving of society’s attention … His signature graffiti style seeks to shock and galvanize a seemingly dormant public into realizing and addressing largely ignored social and political issues; however, it is not just the art itself, but the form of his work, that aims to inspire change (Source: Brenner 2019, p.35).

Much of the controversial artist’s work is believed to have a political message, and Slave Labour is believed to be a statement on sweatshops churning out decorations and memorabilia for the Golden Jubilee and the London … 2012 Olympics (Source: Webb 2013, np).

… [a] depict[ion of] the dangers of modern capitalism, sending the signal that both companies and consumers are guilty of unseen and unreported crimes (Source: Brenner 2019, p.35).

[It] was Banksy’s gift to the British public (Source: Myska in Where The Wall 2013, np link).

In [2008] …, [Banksy] introduced an authentication service, Pest Control, intended to regulate the market for his paintings and street murals. Pest Control routinely fails to authenticate site-specific pieces, citing the artist’s desire to keep his public works in their original contexts. Sotheby’s, Christie’s International and other leading auctioneers will not offer works without this certification (Source: Reyburn 2013, np link).

The context-defined nature of Banksy’s work is [one] of his distinctive hallmarks. … The mural Slave Labour (Bunting Boy), which appeared on the side of a Poundland discount store in south London in 2012, depicts a child sweatshop worker manufacturing a string of three-dimensional plastic Union Jack bunting like that offered for sale in the store. Banksy’s placement was widely understood as an indictment of Poundland’s reliance on child labor in its supply chains (Source: Doering 2021, p.454).

The fact that it was a Poundland wall was coincidental: From Banksy’s website at the time – ‘I painted this on the side of Poundland in North London. A shop which sells cheap jubilee merchandise, is located on the route of the Olympic torch relay and was caught using sweatshop labour two years ago. But I only discovered any of this afterwards – I just thought it was a nice coloured wall’ (Source: EMC2 2013, np link).

Children are a vehicle often used by Banksy to deliver a message about the inherent inhumanity of deprivation, subjugation and violence. … the child depicted in kneeling servitude in Slave Labour is representative of a multitude of children who exist under such conditions. The life-sized figure of the boy gives human form to the otherwise invisible 215 million child labourers aged between 5 and 17 years old worldwide. The juxtaposition of the figure of a child with the activity of enforced labour should be as surprising, ridiculous and arresting as the depiction of a child embracing a bomb, or stop and searching a soldier. That it is not – that the viewer does not, at first, see the boy as anything other than a veridical representation of a fixed and determinate socio-political reality – is the shameful source of the work’s power. We are all implicated in his subjugation (Source: Hansen & Flynn 2015, p.902).

Emotions are often the key that unlocks one’s relationship with a cultural text. … [So, w]hat did the customers of the Poundland discount store (known for the promotional sales of branded products for one pound each) feel when they saw Banksy’s mural … on the wall of the shop, showing a boy with Asian features, hunched over a sewing machine and producing pennants with the flag of Great Britain? Is it possible to present the problem of the West’s abuse of cheap labour from the poorer parts of the world in a more explicit way? … Entering into a relationship with works of popular art may result in the emergence of dissonance (or disorienting dilemma) in the individual, and then to reflection on the existing patterns and their incompatibility with the newly introduced information (Mezirow 2000). In this way, popular art, which in the first place has an influence on the emotions of the recipient, paves the way for transformative learning: it becomes its catalyst (Source: Litawa 2023, p.893-4).

Although street art is often characterized by a certain fragility and apparent ephemerality, it is also the case that such art – especially works by famous street artists like Banksy – are preserved through the digital images taken by both professional photographers as well as fans and admirers. These images are then posted online or perhaps used to create high-quality reproductions, some of which are even placed in galleries. Such technical reproductions allow the ‘original’ creation to continue to exist so that future presentations and enactments of its subject matter are possible (Source: Nielsen 2023, p.7).

Curious passers-by have been scrutinising the stencilled image, which was adorned with real bunting. One man travelled from Heathrow Airport having just arrived in the UK from Spain. Jason Cobham, 44, from Wood Green, said: ‘I definitely think it’s a Banksy. It keeps you thinking about the plight of child labourers.’ He added: ‘I’d pay more than a pound for it. If I could get it off the wall I’d pay a lot of money for it. Haringey should celebrate it’ (Source: Anon 2012, np link).

I think he puts as much thought into location as he does design. No coincidence then that he chose the wall he did – attached to poundland and on the Olympic torch route. Again [this] all adds to the discussion which is what art is all about (Source: Marie 2013a, np link).

It’s a work of art, so of course I enjoy it. It will probably put house prices up in the area – that’s what has happened in areas where he has been before. I don’t see why anyone should object – all it means is the area has arrived. He isn’t attacking the area he is attacking the businesses in the area which exploit people in sweatshops (Source: Longshaw in Leigh 2012, np link).

A Poundland spokesman said the retailer enjoyed Banksy’s art and said suppliers met ethical guidelines (Source: Anon 2012, np link).

In February 2013, Slave Labour was removed from the wall … (Source: Hansen & Flynn 2015, p901) .

… resulting in a media frenzy and wild speculation as to its whereabouts, within just two days it surfaced at a Miami auction house making headlines worldwide (Source: M2 Presswire 2013, np).

Now on bbc.co.uk ‘Banksy mural vanishes from London, appears at US auction’ (Source: Laura 2013, np link).

Its now the second most read story on the BBC (Source: 24v84qaobyku4 2013, np link).

For a few days now I’ve suspected something was afoot with Turnpike Lane’s Banksy; it’s been surrounded by scaffolding and tarpaulin since Wednesday – and there was a security van present for much of that time. This morning I had a sneaky look under said tarpaulin to find it had been removed. I spoke to the guy rendering the wall and he said that after repeated attempts to gouge it out, the owner of the Poundland building had decided to take steps to ‘preserve’ it. He wasn’t sure where it’s gone. .. one can only wonder if it’s been sold. Sad to see it go – it was nice to have a landmark of sorts (Source: AntK 2013, np link).

That’s sad and disappointing. I know it was on private property but I always felt it was ‘our’ Banksy. My husband took a really good photo of it before the plastic was put around it and we have it framed in our wall. I will miss walking past it everyday (Source: Marie 2013b, np link).

If being bummed out about interesting street art being removed is middle class and angsty, I’m happy to be tarred with that brush (Source: Box 2013, np link).

Art for the most part remains the property of collectors and therefore the rich. I guess everytime Banksy creates something like this, he is open to the irony that is may be used in ways that are contrary to the points he is trying to make. But that is ironic in itself. I’m pleased it was here and made an impression. It would be nice if the community benefited somehow from the sale, but human greed being what it is, I somehow doubt it (Source: CanadianMichael 2013, np link).

Well put …, I agree with everything you say. I live a stones throw from where is was and there was a real buzz when it appeared, it certainly did make an impression. You don’t need to be middle class to appreciate it or enjoying debating the meaning of it or to miss it either (Source: Marie 2013b, np link).

Art is a business and those free marketeers are not too bothered about context, community ownership or public access where there’s a buck to be made (Source: Liz 2013, np link).

[N]otice how easily Banksy’s artworks are gobbled up by the economic order they set out to challenge. If they are not defaced or destroyed, or preserved for posterity beneath a sheet of Perspex, the murals are often removed from the public spaces in which they appear – a process that involves specialized crews removing entire sections of wall – and sold off in auctions for hundreds of thousands of pounds, dollars, or euros. In other words, the labour that Banksy freely gives is turned into pure profit by the very system that is subject to critique (Source: Butler & Loacker 2022, p.3 link).

If this kind of thing is to continue then one way to prevent further plunder is for authentic Banksy’s to be listed as soon as they are acknowledged (Source: Liz 2013, np link).

[Slave Labour’s removal left] the outline of the space occupied by the original work visible as a raised rectangular seam … [and] an unpainted and apparently still damp and freshly cemented section of the wall (Source: Hansen & Flynn 2015, p.901 & 902) .

Protests were held at the site of removal, with residents brandishing signs that read ‘Bring back our Banksy’. These protests were grounded in the community’s originally recognised claim over the work as belonging in – and to – its community of origin (Source: Hansen & Flynn 2015, p.901) .

[Its] removal was [also] the catalyst for a series of often self-consciously egalitarian works of aesthetic protest … a visual cacophony of protest and loss … [including] an explosion of graffiti, stencils and paste ups marking the site of removal (Source: Hansen & Flynn 2015, p.899 & 902).

The community protest against Slave Labour’s removal was … registered on the wall itself. These initial responses provide a visual cacophony of protest and loss. Much of this work appears an index of community grief at the loss of Slave Labour. This is a self-governing multiparty conversation. The contributors include both locally recognised street artists and unknown writers. Unlike a curated gallery space, the extramural space of the city wall positions the viewer as an interlocutor with the right to ‘talk back’. As with any ‘public’ conversation with multiple contributors, some of the ‘talk’ appears ‘off topic’ and made for the sheer sake of being a part of the conversation and making one’s mark; some delight in being ostentatious or crude and shocking … ; some are hurried and scrawled; others are planned and articulate. However, the vast majority of marks on the wall made here appear site and topic specific, and designed to be received as evidence of the force of the people’s outrage at the removal, without consultation or warning, of Slave Labour (Source: Hansen & Flynn 2016, p.109).

Much of this work is an index of community grief at the loss of Slave Labour. A large paste up of a weeping nun was positioned directly over the site of extraction; and a red heart was spray painted on the right-hand corner of the site, dripping red paint onto the wounded wall. Other pieces mark the level of community outrage at the ‘theft’ of the work for private auction, and the commodification of Banksy’s ‘gift’ to the community. A stencilled paste-up reading ‘Caution: Thieves at Work’ abuts the left side of the space left by the extracted work; and dollar notes have been pasted around the perimeters of the site of extraction (Source: Hansen & Flynn 2015, p.902-3).

(Source: G Travels 2013, np link – CC BY-NC 2.0).

Another stencil … emulat[ed] the design of Slave Labour … However, instead of producing cut-price jubilee bunting, the figure at the sewing machine now produces American dollars, which spew out from the machine onto the pavement in a three-dimensional pasted paper overflow. The only major difference between Slave Labour and this new stencil is that the boy’s head has been replaced by an oversized nozzle of a spray can, which identifies the piece as being work by the local street artist Cap Head. This work appears to provide further commentary on the complicit nature of commercially successful street artists in ‘selling out’ (Source: Hansen & Flynn 2015, p.904-5).

There are also pieces that reference Banksy’s other work, and that of associated artists. To the left of the wall is a small stencilled rat in the style of Banky’s influential French precursor, Blek le Rat, holding a tiny spray can and a sign repeating the demand of the community protesters. Another stencilled rat in similar proportion, but in the recognizable style of Banksy, sits at the same level to the right of the site of extraction. This rat holds a placard with a single-word protest – ‘Why?’ This is a democratic multiparty conversation. The contributors include both locally recognized street artists and unknown writers drawn to the site. Unlike curated gallery space, which offers the public a relatively passive position as viewer (though viewing is arguably always an active process), the extramural space of the city wall positions the public as interlocutors with the right to speak (Source: Hansen & Flynn 2015, p.902-3).

Given our new found status as an art mecca is now firmly established, can we please have an arts centre in wood green (Source: paddyk 2013, np link)?

Referring to the new [Banksy-like rat] stencil, solicitors for the building’s owner said their client was ‘taking steps to secure this and will be asking Haringey council to take responsibility for the costs of such security’. A council spokesman said: ‘There’s nothing to suggest this latest stencil is an authentic Banksy, although we would be happy to discuss security concerns with the owners’ (Source: Batchelor 2013, np).

Locals are furious about the painting being stolen. Councillor Alan Strickland says the artwork was a ‘gift’ to his community and has instigated a campaign to get the artwork returned by urging people to e-mail the U.S. auction website. He said: ‘The Banksy appeared last May and created lots of excitement in the area – people were coming from across London to see it. We were really proud to have a Banksy in our neighbourhood, so residents were shocked to realise it had been ripped out of the wall. The community feels that this art was given to us, for free, and it’s now been taken away to be sold for huge profit. I’m very angry about the Banksy going – we want our Banksy back!’ (Source: Webb 2013, np).

Banksy Slave Labour could fetch nearly half a million at auction. … Gallery owner Frederic Thut told The Sun that it was being sold by a ‘well-known’ collector who is not British but refused to divulge any more information. He added that the painting was being stored in Europe (Source: Webb 2013, np).

The thieving scum. It was produced to highlight Poundland’s use of practically slave labour to produce their crap and now they’ve torn it down to cash in on that too. Vile (Source: Richards-Davies 2013, np link).

Poundland say they are not behind the removal of the artwork … A spokesman said: ‘We’re not responsible for either selling or removing the Banksy mural. We’re currently investigating’. A Met Police spokesman said the removal has not been reported as a crime (Source: Webb 2013, np).

[Gallery owner] Mr Thut … said that the owner’s prime motive for the sale was to conserve artwork that might otherwise be lost, and that the buyer would be supplied with a letter of provenance. ‘Our consignors are not gamblers or money-makers. They are people whose first interest is in art and its preservation,’ he said. ‘We respect our clients and their confidentiality. It’s not our decision to have (the Banksy) returned. We only sell it. We do not have control of it.’ Thut, however, said that he supported the inclusion of the piece, and a second Banksy entitled Wet Dog, a 2007 artwork removed from the West Bank of Bethlehem and estimated in value between $600,000 and $800,000, in Saturday’s 118-lot Modern, Contemporary and Street Art sale. ‘It’s about conservation: here’s a piece of art, [and] we are going to protect it,’ he said. ‘It could have been destroyed. When you try to make an event with a speciality you want the best lots, and Banksy is a part of the street art scene’ (Source: Luscombe 2013, np link).

Who placed the work in the auction is a mystery. Wood Green Investments, the property company which owns the Poundland unit, has remained silent throughout the dispute … It is a mystery of disappearing street art, stretching from a north London street to a high-end Miami auction house. The investigation, initiated by Haringey council, now involves the British government, the Arts Council, the Metropolitan Police and the FBI – yet all have failed to cast light on who chiselled a Banksy mural from the side of a Poundland shop last Saturday (Source: Batchelor 2013, np).

A solicitor for … Wood Green Investments … told the Financial Times: ‘If they deny removing the mural they will become embroiled in an international criminal investigation that has already involved the FBI, but if they admit to consenting to (its removal) then they will become the target of abuse. As a consequence, the advice to my client has been to say nothing’ (Source: Anon 2013b, np link).

Several months on, people still haven’t got answers about why it was removed or who took it, and people have been disappointed that [the owners of the building] have refused to say anything about what they know. … Local campaigners are angry that a work that was intended to be free for all to see has been taken away to sell to a private collector (Source: BBCTV News 2013, np).

The removal of Banksy’s work has raised questions over the preservation and ownership of public art. Property lawyers believe the owner of the building would be entitled to sell the mural. ‘The local authority can’t really do much, except try and get the building listed or get English Heritage involved,’ said Daniel Levy, real estate partner at Mishcon de Reya (Source: Batchelor 2013, np).

[Councillor] Alan Strickland … is asking people to email the auction house to ask them to withdraw the Banksy from sale. … Pls RT. Save our Banksy from sale. Let’s all email art company auctioning it on [email deleted]. Tell them to withdraw it from auction (Source: K 2013, np link).

The piece … was a bit of a cheeky critique of capitalism, so the idea that that piece is now being sold in Miami, I think runs completely counter to the spirit in which it was given (Source: Strickland in Where the Wall 2013, np link).

Am I the only one who finds deeply ironic, perhaps insulting in some respects to his message, that his work which criticises capitalism and consumerism in particular is then consumed by some person willing to pay thousands for it, probably in an act of conspicuous consumption (Source: heffalump232 2012, np link)?

I find the privatization of Banksy’s mural Slave Labour, art intended for the people, incredibly depressing (Source: Creagh 2013, np link).

It meant so much to the area – one of the hardest hit during the London riots in 2011 (Source: Trifunov 2016, np link).

Haringey Council leader Cllr Claire Kober said: ‘As the clock ticks towards auction we are stepping up the fight to secure the return of our Banksy. We want to explore all avenues for getting back this important mural and having written to the Arts Council and Fine Arts Auction Miami earlier in the week we are now appealing to the Mayor of Miami Tomás Regalado and the highest ranked of our own politicians in the culture department’ (Source: Elgot 2013, np link).

[T]he Arts Council has said there is little it can do as the mural is less than 50 years old and excluded from Export Control under current rules. ‘As a result, Arts Council England is unable to directly intervene in this instance,’ chair Sir Peter Bazalgette said. ‘It is a shame that a piece of street art that is well loved by the local community has been removed for auction,’ he added (Source: Anon 2013d, np link).

We don’t own the building we find it depressing too, like everyone else we petitioned for it to stop being sold 🙁 (Source: Poundland 2013, np link).

Though many stories circulated suggesting that the work was stolen, it turned out that the owner of the building arranged for its removal and sale (Source: Chused 2019, p.44).

Council leader Claire Kober said in an open letter to [ gallery ] owner Frederic Thut: ‘We understand that there may be nothing illegal in the way this artwork was quietly removed from our streets and put up for auction by you in Miami. But for you to allow it to be sold for huge profit in this way would be morally wrong.’ Thut said he had received hundreds of angry phone calls but that the sale was legally, the owner was not British and had sold the piece in order to conserve it. ‘It’s been said that the artwork was stolen, and that is just not true. … We take a lot of care with our consignors, who they are, what they do, and if there’s any illegality we will not touch it. Everything is checked out 150%.’ But he also told ITV in a later interview that if anyone could prove the Banksy had been stolen he would take it off the market (Source: Elgot 2013, np link).

In both the … removal and sale of Slave Labor (Bunting Boy), Banksy owned the copyrights in the works, but not the physical marks on the walls. Thinking in property-like terms, the owners of the building owned the physical qualities of the Banksy creation. If they wanted to sell it, so be it. But Banksy has said that when he puts up
a work in a widely visible location, his intention is to make a gift to the public, not to the owner of the building the creation rests upon. Is it appropriate to offer up for sale a work the artist has dedicated to the public or declared to be non-transferable (Source: Chused 2019, p.44)?

So, where is that petition asking Banksy NOT TO authenticate this? In my view this would be the only way to undermine this auction (Source: Mary 2013, np link).

Slave Labour hasn’t been endorsed by [Banksy’s] Pest Control, according to the Fine Art Auctions Miami online catalog (Source: Reyburn 2013, np link).

Marc Schiller, founder of the street art website woostercollective.com and who claims to be a friend of Banksy, told the Guardian that the work was worthless in an art auction because it was only ever intended as a piece of location-specific social commentary. ‘I’m not buying the argument that because Banksy put a piece in public it gives a person the right to steal and resell it,’ he said. ‘When he is on the street he is giving his work to the public to enjoy for a day, a month, a year or more. His position has been that if you take his work out of its context it’s not his work any more, it’s no longer a Banksy. Sotheby’s and Christie’s would not touch it, and the only way you can sell it is through shady circumstances, by keeping yourself anonymous and never telling how you got it, how it came to be.’ He added that he doubted the auction would be successful. ‘The truth is that it’s worthless, and even if somebody buys it for whatever price, their only opportunity is to look at it from the perspective that it was acquired by theft,’ he said. ‘No legitimate collector would buy it. My argument is not that the sale shouldn’t happen; it’s that there shouldn’t be a market for it’ (Source: Luscombe 2013 np link).

The mural Slave Labour … appeared at a Miami auction, but … (Source: Anon 2013a, np link).

… was withdrawn moments before it was due to go under the hammer (Source: Batty 2013, np link).

Surprisingly … the auction house … did not add further explanations, but it is plausible that the vigorous protest of the Haringey community as well as the lack of the artist’s authentication played a decisive role in this decision (Source: Frigerio & Khakimova 2013, p.42 link).

Claire Kober, Leader of Haringey Council, … said: ‘It’s a true credit to the community that their campaigning appears to have helped to stop the sale of this artwork from going ahead. We will continue to explore all options to bring back Banksy to the community where it belongs’ (Source: Anon 2013b, np link).

A Banksy artwork that went missing from a wall in north London is being auctioned for a second time … in London by the Sincura Group … (Source: Anon 2013a, np link).

… prompting condemnation from north London campaigners and officials (Source: Batty 2013, np link).

The minimum bid is £900,000 (Source: Anon 2013a, np link).

Love the #banksy #slavelabour art has vanished & reappeared up for auction 4 £900k amazing artwork & mysterious banksy How does he do it (Source: RachelHolmes 2013b, np link)?

Thieving, greedy, criminal b*stards! Put it back, philistines (Source: Davy_A1965 2013, np link)!

Anyone who attempts to buy that #banksy #slavelabour is a Dick and entirely missing the point (Source: Lou Matthews 2013, np link)!

The Sincura Group, the London based concierge specialists who pride themselves on obtaining the unobtainable, have once again pulled off a major coup by bringing [Slave Labour] back to the capital to feature as the centrepiece of their next show, Banksy at the Flower Cellars. … Having now been sensitively restored under a cloak of secrecy, the piece will be returning to London for one night only to be shown at the London Film Museum in London’s Covent Garden on June 2nd (Source: M2 Presswire 2013, np).

It was being auctioned at the London Film Museum in Covent Garden on Sunday evening, but the final sale price has yet to be announced. Sincura said [that] … if the piece did not reach the reserve price it would be sold to a collector in the US. … Tony Baxter, director of the Sincura Group, said he could not divulge the owner of the piece but insisted it was being sold legally. He said there was a chance the work would leave the UK unless an ‘angel’ bought it and put it in a museum. But [Lynn] Featherstone, Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, said: ‘This is admirable, perhaps, but also incredibly optimistic. So now I make this direct plea to the owners of the Banksy piece: You have this one last chance to do the right thing. You have deprived a community of an asset that was given to us for free and greatly enhanced an area that needed it. I call on you, and your consciences, to pull the piece from both potential sales and return it to its rightful place’ (Source: Anon 2013a, np link).

Doesn’t MP #LynneFeatherstone reslise that her pathetic comments about #Banksy wall ( #SlaveLabour) are just fuelling the hype (Source: Salmon 2013, np link).

Keith Flett, secretary of the local Trades Union Congress, attacked the move. ‘The Slave Labour Banksy belongs to the people of Haringey, not to a wealthy private client,’ he said. ‘We want the sale stopped and the Banksy back where it belongs in London N22’ (Source: Batty 2013, np link).

The Wood Green councillor Alan Strickland said local people would relaunch their campaign and the mural ‘belongs with the people of north London. We are quite shocked by the development and really disappointed that after a community campaign it should be put up for sale again,’ he said. ‘We have been encouraging people to contact the events company to ask them to remove the piece. We saw the level of public anger last time, as the story went around the world, and I expect the same this time’ (Source: Batty 2013, np link).

These protests, at least, yielded some clarifications. The sellers, Bloomberg reported, were Robert Alan Davis and Leslie Steven Gilbert, the proprieters of Wood Green Investments, which owns the building on which the work appeared. Because a piece of graffiti becomes the property of the owners of the wall on which it is drawn, Mr. Davis and Mr. Gilbert were free to dispose of it as they saw fit – which explains the contention by both Fine Art Auctions Miami and the Sincura Group that they had no problem with the work’s provenance (Source: Kozinn 2013, np link).

Five polystyrene replicas of Slave Labour were placed in a row against the site of extraction at 5.30 am on 1 June 2013, the morning of the London auction of Slave Labour. These new pieces are the work of Essex-based artist Laura Keeble, and are entitled Supply & Demand (After Banksy’s Slave Labour). These three-dimensional pieces have been produced in the exact proportions of Banksy’s original Slave Labour (Source: Hansen & Flynn 2015, p.904-5).

Supply & Demand (After Banksy's Slave labour) #banksy #Whymarkavenue #woodgreen #slavelabour #Haringey pic.twitter.com/RdRC5TbKpE

— Laura keeble (@Laura_keeble) June 2, 2013

(Source: Keeble 2013a, np link).

Title: Supply & Demand (After Banksy’s Slave Labour). Date: 1st June 5.30am. Site: Whymark Avenue, Wood Green, London. Description:  Polystyrene, Plaster, Artex, Paint, Spray paint, Perspex, Mixed media. 5 pieces of ‘wall’ replicating the Banksy’s Slave labour piece that was removed and placed in auction. The 5 wall pieces were left on the eve of the high profile auction in London  (Source: Keeble 2013b, np link).

The Metropolitan Police confirmed to the BBC that one of the replicas was later confiscated from a member of the public. If no-one claims the copy, it too will be auctioned (Source: Anon 2013a, np link).

[A]fter the three-and-a-half hour silent auction, Sincura Group … said it had received three bids topping the £750,000 mark (Source: Wilson 2013, np link).

The buyer of the work, and its eventual destination, were not revealed (Source: Kozinn 2013, np link).

Banksy’s Slave Labour auctioned. Shame. He didn’t create it for private exploitation (Source: hoare 2013, np link)?

[I]n May 2014, a further stencilled work was added to the wall [see tweet below]. This piece is by the street artist Mobstr, produced in advance of his first solo gallery show in East London. Nearly 18 months post the removal of Slave Labour, discussion of the work on Twitter now described the location simply as #thewallwhereabanksywas. This very large piece covers the entire stretch of the wall with painted lettering that animates the public’s imagined reactions to the work on the wall, though which of the works it references – the authenticated Banksy rat, the Banksy-style cut here stencil, Mobstr’s own piece, or indeed the many works beneath since erased as vandalism – is undetermined. This work does not obscure Banksy’s rat, which remains fixed under Perspex to the wall, nor does it interfere with the cut here stencil, which was now beginning to fade and flake without any level of protection against the elements. The text on the wall arrests the viewer with a breathless exclamation and an injunction to look: ‘Darling look, it’s a Banksy!’ However, this is followed by the dismissive and patronising retort, ‘Don’t be silly my dear, that’s just some vandalism’, to which the first speaker accedes, ‘Oh right. Yes, of course’. This work provides satirical commentary on mundane evaluations of the status, or worth, of street art and graffiti. Like the prior works on the wall, it offers a critique of the objectification and commodification of street art, however unlike prior works, it effects a sharp division between ‘a Banksy’ worth exclaiming over and looking
at and ‘some vandalism’ not worthy of viewers’ attention. This is accomplished by adopting the perspective of the imagined consumer-viewers of the work, who, as it turns out, are not looking at the work at all, but are simply concerned with categorising it crudely as ‘a Bansky’ or as ‘vandalism’, in order to determine if it is worth their attention. Mobstr thus creates a rupture in common sense by making visible the workings of the very consensus that holds together the division of the sensible … that informs our practices of looking (Source: Hansen & Flynn 2016, p. 111-2).

Innovative artwork on Wood Green site of Banksy's #SlaveLabour removed by Sincura on orders of Wood Green Properties pic.twitter.com/eAYYz3vUyb

— Narendra Makanji (@NarendraMakanji) May 6, 2014

(Source: Makanji 2014a, np link).

New addition at Banksy site in Wood Green. Hey Sincura where’s the original #SlaveLabour (Source: Makanji 2014a, np link)?

[4 years later:] An iconic secondary market Banksy mural that was hacked off of a wall in London is to go under the hammer at Julien’s Auctions in LA. The auction house’s Street and Contemporary Art Auction will take place November 14, 2018. Banksy’s authentication board Pest Control refuses to acknowledge works when removed from their original site-specific locations, so in-theory they have no value on the secondary market. Banksy stands to earn nothing from the outcome of this sale and Pest Control refuses to authenticate this well-known mural (Source: Artlyst 2018, np link).

Banksy’s Slave Labour sells for £561,000 (Source: Sky News 2018a, np link).

Estimate: $600,000 – $800,000. Sold Price: $730,000 (Source: Julien’s 2018, np link).

[This time] Slave Labour was … purchased by [Ron] English who is protesting against the commodification of street art, that is art being bought and sold after it has been legally removed by the site owners and then put up for auction. ‘My idea for this painting is to whitewash it for my good pal Banksy, I only wish I could’ve spent more money on it. I’m done. This is a blow to street art. It shouldn’t be bought and sold. ‘I’m going to paint over it and just include it in one of the walls in my house. We’re tired of people stealing our stuff off the streets and re-selling it so I’m just going to buy everything I can get my hands on and whitewash it’ (Source: Anon 2018, np link).

Somebody should paint over him instead (Source: Lilac de Tremelay 2018, np link).

Asked if he would sell the whitewashed painting, Ron English, who said he had worked with Banksy in Palestine, said: ‘Of course – I’ll sell the whitewash painting for $1m’ (Source: Southern 2018, np).

[English’s] ‘plan’ to fight the sales of streetart is to buy streetart from sellers ………… we got a f*£kin genius over here, yall (Source: Sigh_SMH 2018, np link).

[H]e claims to want to destroy the art because he’s tired of street artists having their work stolen and sold like this (Source: shadow-mind 2018, np link).

this guy is a jackass. spend that money to help the homeless is what banksy would say (Source: scoobydoo2020 2018, np link).

Mr English … added: ‘I’m crazy but I’m not stupid’. Last month, a Banksy piece sold for more than £1m partially ‘self-destructed’ after the hammer came down (Source: Sky News 2018b, np link).

Banksy is great at PR. He keeps jacking up the value of his art with stunts like this (Source: El_Hamaultagu 2018, np link).

All this #Banksy talk on the news makes me want one sooooo much #slavelabour (Source: RachelHolmes 2013a, np link)?

Wall26 ‘Slave Labour by Banksy – Child Sewing Countries Flags Together – Canvas Art Home Decor – 32 x 48 inches. $94.99 (Source: Walmart nd, np link).

Banksy Slave Labour Sticker … £3.96 (Source: Weston Westmoreland nd, np link).

Banksy Slave Labour cushion … £18.99 (Source: Canvas Art Rocks nda, np link).

Banksy Slave Labour wall mural wallpaper … £28.99 (Source: Canvas Art Rocks ndb, np link).

Banksy Slave Labour Christmas ornament … £16.99 (Source: Canvas Art Rocks ndc, np link).

Banksy Slave Labour Artwork: A Powerful Message by Banksy Art Board Print. … £15.82. … Explore the thought-provoking world of Banksy with ‘Slave Labour Artwork.’ Banksy, a renowned urban artist, delivers a powerful message through this striking piece. This artwork delves into social commentary, bringing to light issues of labor, exploitation, and the human experience. As you delve into the details of this mural, you’ll find that Banksy’s stenciled art offers a unique perspective on contemporary issues. The street art scene comes alive in this mural, where every stroke tells a story. This piece is more than just a visual treat; it’s a form of protest and activism. Banksy’s ‘Slave Labour Artwork’ is more than just an image on the wall; it’s a reflection of our urban culture and the resistance movement. Dive into the world of contemporary street art with this masterpiece. Add this powerful message to your collection today and embrace the essence of modern urban art (Source: So Sorted Designs nd, np link).

Banksy Slave Labour Bunting Boy Stencil … £59.99. … This Life Size Banksy ‘Slave Labour’ Stencil allows you to paint your very own piece of replica Banksy graffiti art. The original piece was created in 2012 for the Queens Diamond Jubilee as a protest against the use of sweatshops to manufacture Diamond Jubilee memorabilia. Includes 2.5 meters of 10 bunting flags (Source: Ideal Stencils nd, np link).

Bunting Boy (Slave Labour) by Banksy’s Graffiti Premium … $1,750.00. … Own a piece of street art history with this officially licensed Banksy Graffiti Art print. Each artwork in this collection captures an authentic, original Banksy stencil as it appeared in its raw urban environment – before being removed, covered, or altered (Source: Banksy’s Graffiti nd, np link).

Despite the high-profile media coverage of the ‘theft’ of Banksy’s piece, the explosion of new works provoked by its extraction was for the most part simply erased as it appeared. We argue that the excision of Slave Labour provided a ‘gap in the sensible’ and the conditions of possibility for the emergence of a lively local intertextual visual dialogue, which transformed this otherwise apparently unremarkable London side street into an arena for aesthetic protest and critical social commentary (Source: Hansen & Flynn 2015, p.898).

[10 years later, on the same Poundland wall, at the time of Queen Elizabeth’s Platimum Jubilee:]

(Source: Pycock 2023, np link – CC BY-SA 2.0).

[10 years later, for Queen Elizabeth’s Platimum Jubilee:] What people thought was a new mural by Banksy in Wood Green North London has turned out to be the work of British artist James Straffon. The mural, which went up a few days ago, is an homage, Straffon said, to a Banksy work that was stolen from the same spot nine years ago, and to the felling of a statue of Edward Colston in Bristol during the Black Lives Matter protests there in 2020. The work is sprayed onto the side of a Poundland store where all items cost around £1, in a non-glamorous area of London. It shows Colston’s plinth with a sewing machine on top of it churning out Union Jack bunting. It appears just ahead of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee at the end of the month (Source: Abrams 2022, np link).

It has appeared in the lead up to the Platinum Jubilee celebrations at the start of June, as many campaigners call for the Royal Family to apologise for its historical links to slavery (Source: Barnes 2022, np link).

‘My Ten Years a Slave artwork is an homage to Banksy’s original Slave Labour artwork, created exactly 10 years ago, as a provocative statement against child labor, and slavery in the modern sense,’ Straffon told Artnet News. ‘I wanted to restore the original, and at the same time continue the conversation recently ignited around the shadows of our colonial past. To that end, placing Banksy’s original sewing machine atop the now notorious Colston plinth seemed an appropriate juxtaposition’ (Source: Abrams 2022, np link).

The Banksy sewing machine is placed atop an infamous plinth, which until June 7, 2020 supported a statue of the 17th Century Bristol slave trader Edward Colston. On this day, members of the Black Lives Matter campaign proved the catalyst for the bronze statue to be toppled from the plinth, and eventually cast off the quayside into the depths of Bristol Harbour. Two years after this event, four members of the public, dubbed the Colston Four, were acquitted in a Bristol Crown Court of criminal damage. Following release, one of the group, Sage Willoughby, stated ‘We didn’t change history, we rectified it. This is a victory for Bristol, this is a victory for racial equality and it’s a victory for anybody who wants to be on the right side of history.’ Prior to the trial, Banksy provided support for the defendants, via the sale of a special limited edition T-shirt, which featured the vacant plinth (Source: Staffron 2022, np link).