Council destroys Banksy artwork

Art by Banksy that was used as the cover of a Blur single has been painted over by the local council.

The image of the royal family waving from a balcony — used for Blur's 2003 hit Crazy Beat — had been on the side of a block of flats in Stoke Newington for eight years.

His art sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds and workers removed the graffiti just as his exhibition at Bristol Museum — which attracted 300,000 visitors — prepared to close.

A Stoke Newington blogger, known as Kris, said council workers told bosses of the importance of the work, to no avail.

The building's owner, Sophie Attrill, said she was devastated to see the wall being painted. "I ran downstairs and I told them to stop," she said.

Alan Laing, Hackney council cabinet member, said: "Hackney council does not make a judgment call on whether graffiti is art or not."