Ukraine tries to preserve Banksy's graffiti in Irpin

The multi-story building in Irpin, on whose facade the world-renowned street artist Banksy left his graffiti, has begun to be demolished. This information is reported by vikna.tv.

Experts have been reinforcing the artwork and considering how to dismantle the burned building while preserving the artwork for the past two weeks. Such attention to Banksy's work is not coincidental. Art experts estimate that one of his world-class masterpieces is worth at least a million dollars, and the artist left seven of them in Kyiv region.

The fire-damaged building in Irpin is being dismantled very carefully. Concrete partitions are gradually being removed from the upper floors. Workers mostly operate manually, trying not to damage the graffiti and placing protective blocks around them. The Banksy artwork is located behind these blocks.

Residents of neighboring buildings say that nobody saw or heard about the artist when he was leaving his paintings. However, they want these unique creations to be preserved and returned.

"It's like history, tourist routes. They need to be preserved for future generations," says local resident Oleksandr.

A composition for further preservation of these world masterpieces has already been devised, but the location is still unknown.

"We want to leave these paintings on a concrete slab. But we still need to figure out how to immortalize it," says Angela Makeieva, the secretary of Irpin City Council.

A similar fate awaits the graffiti in Hostomel. The location where it is situated will not be demolished, and the artwork will be placed inside a room. Later on, they plan to buy the room and turn it into a museum that can be visited.

Restorers note that concrete works can last for decades, while those placed on polymeric foam, plaster, or wallpaper will require prior restoration procedures. Moreover, the masters point out that it has been only a short time, and some of the artworks already have mold.

"The value of these works is not in the money but in the meaning and visiting these places. We have been repeatedly offered to sell the works for a huge amount of money," say the communities where the artist left his masterpieces.

First artwork of the British underground artist Banksy appeared on the wall of a destroyed house in Borodianka in November 2022. 

More graffiti in Kyiv, Hostomel, and Irpin were identified and confirmed later on.

The artist's works appear all over the world and are considered masterpieces of global scale, with some of them being sold at auctions for tens of millions of dollars. 

Therefore, this event has caused a significant resonance in society.