London workmen paint over graffiti by top artist

LONDON (AFP) - Workmen in London have painted over a 300,000 pound piece by world-renowned graffiti artist Banksy, reports said on Friday.

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Although Banksy's canvases are snapped up by celebrities such as Angelina Jolie for thousands of pounds, his stencilled graffiti creations can be found on walls and billboards around the capital.

Now one of these, a picture of John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson's characters from the 1994 film "Pulp Fiction" holding bananas instead of guns, has been painted over by a graffiti removal team, the Daily Telegraph said.

In protest at the move, a fellow artist has painted a huge "come back" message where the Banksy work used to be, near Old Street in London's east end.

"Our graffiti removal teams are staffed by professional cleaners, not professional art critics," said a spokesman for Transport for London, employers of the workers who coated the piece in thick black paint.

But George Thomas, who owns a barber shop below where the Banksy used to be, said it used to attract dozens of tourists taking photographs.

"There is no way it could have been mistaken for graffiti," he told the Telegraph. "Whoever destroyed it is an idiot."

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