Bristol Banksy Black-Out Blunder

Our intrepid London Correspondent spotted this BBC News item Tuesday, describing how a classic Banksy mural was accidentally rollered with "thick black paint" by a government contractor assigned to clean up adjacent graffiti.

Recent notoriety for the celebrated UK street artist (in February a Banksy piece sold for £102,000) has come with controversy. In January we reported that Banksy's "Rat Playing Ball" was removed from a London wall by thieves who later tried to eBay the masonry for £20,000. And last December, a Banksy mural here in Williamsburg was hit by the Splasher during one of his earliest sprees. That scene was quickly rollered over by Faile in a (futile) attempt to limit the attention the Splasher was apparently seeking.

We'd held off reporting on it, given the glut of Splasher-related postings lately...but a few days ago, one of the Faile stencils on North 6th (the same spot as the Banksy splashing and recent American Apparel pasting) was rollered with white paint. We're not sayin there's any connection with the Bristol rollering, we're just sayin...