A Banksy Stencil Worth $150,000 Was Vandalized in West London

The vandal painted a head covering worn by Muslim women over the rare mural.

Image via missfab2014 on Twitter

When you hear the words "Banksy mural" these days, it's a countdown until the street art is either vandalized or removed from the wall and sold. The former happened to a piece over the weekend that the artist painted on a pub in West London back in 2007. According to Daily Mail, the stencil that once featured a sad little girl with the word "Smile" over her head was painted over with a black niqab (not a burhka, according to BBC), a covering that many Muslim women wear to hide their hair and face while leaving their eyes exposed.

The vandalism was most likely a reference to Banksy's recent visit to Gaza, where he painted three murals in a region hit hard by war, and recorded a mini travel commercial encouraging people to visit the area. 

According to Daily Mail, security cameras were installed for the mural when it was painted in 2007, but it is unknown if they still exist or if they caught the vandal that defaced the work. Twitter user @missfab2014 pleaded with Banksy to come back and repair the work, and it looks like her prayers were answered, just not by the artist himself.

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[via Daily Mail] 

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