The Banksy removal - When street art meets property rights
The removal last year of a Banksy in Venice has reignited a longstanding legal debate at the intersection of property law and copyright: when street art is created without permission on someone else's wall, who actually owns it? And can the property owner legally remove it?
In May 2019, during the inauguration of the Venice Biennale, a work attributed to Banksy appeared depicting a migrant child with its feet and part of its legs immersed in the water of a canal, wearing a life jacket and holding a flare emitting pink smoke. In early 2025, to preserve its integrity considering local climatic conditions and to allow restoration of the historic palazzo owned by Banca Ifis on which it was created, it was announced that the work would be removed by "detaching" it from the surface; the operation was carried out on the night of 23-24 July 2025. The restoration was completed in early 2026; the work is currently held at an undisclosed location and may soon be returned to its original site, this time with protective measures to shield it from the effects of water, salt air and wind.
