Venice restoration of fading Banksy masterpiece sparks anger among artists

Painted on the wall of an abandoned Venetian palace, Banksy's 2019 Biennale of Contemporary Art creation, 'The Migrant Child', has become a tourist attraction in the City of Canals. However, due to humidity and salt, the artwork depicting a child wearing a life jacket and holding a torch is slowly fading away.

Serving as a commentary on the global refugee crisis but also raising questions about the transient nature of art, this work is also at the centre of an increasingly bitter battle over its restoration. 

In a bid to save it, the owner of the building requested the Sopraintendenza dei Beni Culturali (Superintendence of Cultural Heritage) to intervene but the body responsible for the preservation of cultural heritage said it wasn't qualified to deal with such a recent piece. 

The mayor of the city, Luigi Brugnaro, and the president of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, reached out to Vittorio Sgarbi, the under-secretary for Culture in Giorgia Meloni's government for help. The latter took it upon himself to restore the work known as 'The Migrant Child' through private funding by an Italian bank and it sparked anger among local architectural and artistic communities.

The Rio Novo neighbourhood, where the stencil is located, is one of the busiest in the city, connecting the railway station to the Grand Canal. The passage of motorboats causes what the Venetians call "moto ondoso," waves that contribute to the erosion of the lagoon.

This phenomenon is considered a major emergency by UNESCO due to its devastating effects on the environment and the city's historical infrastructure.

"The lower part of Venetian palaces, in contact with the water, is referred to in architecture as the 'surface of sacrifice,'" explains Monica Gambarotto, a