Builders accidentally demolish latest Banksy work—and pull the pieces from the rubble

Good morning and good night: a new work by anonymous artist Banksy entitled the morning is broken appeared in the southern English county of Kent – and has already been demolished. The mural, which shows a person and a cat pushing back corrugated iron curtains, was painted on a boarded-up window of a derelict 500-year-old farmhouse at Blacksole Farm in Herne Bay, according to local news outlets KentOnline. Banksy confirmed its authenticity in an Instagram post today (March 15), which showed both the finished work and its destruction by construction workers.

The workers told KentOnline that they “felt sick” when they discovered they had destroyed a real Banksy work. The construction workers have now managed to pull the remains of the piece out of the rubble. Adam Brooks, a local Banksy fan who saw the news and visited the website, described the emerging fragments as like seeing “the holy grail come out of a container.”

The morning is broken is the second work Banksy has authenticated on his Instagram account this year, both located in Kent. The previous work, which the artist announced on Valentine’s Day, related to a sign against domestic violence. It showed a woman in a 1950s-style plaid dress with an injured eye who appears to have just dumped her abusive partner in a large freezer. This plant in Margate was dismantled by the local council– removing the freezer, a broken chair and an empty beer bottle – “for safety reasons” just hours after its unveiling. The freezer was later returned by authorities, but the entire facility is now being dismantled and relocated to Dreamland, a nearby amusement park, where it will be on display for free, according to the local news outlet kent lives.

Banksy is known for the political and social messages that inspire his work. The artist even traveled to Ukraine last year to take pictures inspired by the Russian invasion and went on to create a series of prints to raise money for Ukraine’s relief efforts.

So what is the message of his latest work? “I think he wanted it destroyed because he usually posts his work when he wants people to see it,” says Brooks. He described how the builders told him they saw a man in black taking pictures of the site but thought nothing of it. “He was obviously hanging around so it could be torn down,” says Brooks.

Perhaps after seeing many of his works dismantled and commodified – Banksy’s road works have sold for millions on the open market with no personal monetary gain – the artist enjoys seeing the panic that ensues when a piece is unknowingly destroyed. As Kent Onlines Facebook post reads: “Think how much it could have sold”.