Saturday brought bad news for New Orleans art lovers. Sometime in the night, someone had badly marred the “Umbrella Girl,” a painting by the British graffiti superstar Banksy.
The artwork, located on the corner of North Rampart and Kerlerec Streets, was one of the few remaining examples of a suite of paintings that Banksy created during a secretive visit to the city in 2008. The vandal, or vandals, cut through the clear plastic sheeting of the painting in order to spray a red tag over the “Umbrella Girl’s” face, thereby attempting to ruin the piece for good.
But the attackers failed.
Photographer and Banksy admirer Carlos Fundora said he spent more than three hours on Saturday evening gently removing the fresh paint from the surface of the 12-year-old mural with a sanding sponge. He and a group of fellow artists then protected the “Umbrella Girl” with a sheet of plywood until they were able to replace the clear plastic sheet on Monday.
Fundora said that the ad hoc group effort to restore the painting was “about not letting the city lose something people enjoy.”
The iconic “Umbrella Girl” painting by street-art master Banksy was tagged with red spray paint sometime between Christmas Eve and the day aft…
Banksy apparently based the “Umbrella Girl” on the Morton Salt logo. Though in his ironic version, the umbrella is the source of a downpour. The much-beloved painting is widely interpreted as a symbol of the federal levee system that failed during the Hurricane Katrina storm surge in 2005.
Fundora said that he and the other artists were unable to remove a trace of the red paint on the “Umbrella Girl’s” dress without damaging the original painting.
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Fundura said he’s unaware of who owns the blighted property where the Banksy is located. For years, the painting has been watched over by volunteers. In 2014 a thief attempted to cut the valuable artwork from the wall, but was foiled.
Banksy paintings have sold for millions at auction. Fundura said that if the painting were in a museum or private collection, it would have been restored by experts.
“None of us would be trusted to do this under other circumstances,” he said.
A second Banksy painting, known as "The Gray Ghost" was damaged in a similar act of vandalism on Christmas.
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