Banksy Restoration

LOCATION: New York
DESIGN: Banksy Restoration

For this Project Serett was tasked with stabilizing a painting by Banksy, the controversial British street artist who scrawls politically charged messages on buildings around the globe. Some call it vandalism, but collectors have paid more than $1 million for his pieces.

The piece at Serett, known as "Out of Bed Rat," was painted on a Los Angeles wall in 2002. It was hacked off the building at some point and put up for sale for $400,000 by Keszler Gallery in Southampton.

Moving paintings on canvas is a relative cinch — you just take the canvas off its stretcher, roll it up, and away you go. Not so for a mural painted on what Young described as "an old crappy wall" that was "about to fall apart."

Before being shipped across the ocean, the work needed to be made strong enough to endure the trip. Asking the artist for advice was unfortunately out of the question, because Banksy keeps his identity a secret.

We spent three weeks preparing the delicate piece for a voyage on the high seas during which it could be hoisted by cranes and shoved around on forklifts. You can read more about the painstaking process and how we did it here.