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- By Thomas Mackintosh
- bbc news
Image source, Matt McKenna
The artwork appeared over the weekend in Finsbury Park, but was defaced with white paint.
A mural painted by street artist Banksy on a residential building in north London has been defaced.
The artwork appeared over the weekend in Finsbury Park and features stripes of green paint on a wall behind a nearby tree, to give the appearance of leaves, with a stencil of a person next to it.
But on Wednesday morning, local resident Matt McKenna, 35, saw white paint spread across the wall.
Islington Council has been contacted for comment.
High metal fences have also been installed around the tree and wall.
“True shame”
Streams of people traveled to see the artwork, but McKenna told BBC London that he saw the mural had been defaced while walking his dog.
“It’s a real shame. It happened overnight,” he said. “When he turned up on Sunday, my partner saw it and said he liked it a lot before everyone was talking about it.
The tree before and after it was cut down, and the Banksy mural before it was apparently painted with white paint.
“Then the rumor started that it was probably a Banksy, then he posted that it was a Banksy on Instagram.
“There are a lot of people talking about this and it is a part of London that is sometimes a bit forgotten.”
As with many of Banksy’s works, the latest piece sparked debate and a variety of opinions, including from some conservation activists who say the tree was over-pruned or pollarded.
Previously, before the white paint appeared, Islington Council said its graffiti removal team was aware of the artwork and would not remove it.
The local authority explained that the cherry tree chosen by Banksy was between 40 and 50 years old and its health was deteriorating, with decay and fungal damage.
The council added that it would continue to work to try to keep the tree alive and that it should re-sprout its entire canopy.
Large numbers of people have traveled to Finsbury Park to see Banksy’s artwork since it first appeared over the weekend.
The head of the company responsible for pruning the tree back to its current shape on behalf of the council said his team had used an “old form of pruning”, known as pollarding, in which the top parts of the tree were removed.
He said it was a “really good way to increase the lifespan of the tree” and that he hoped it would “explode with growth in the spring.”