Rachel Moore

Two summers ago, a frenzy of excitement seeped along our part of the coast as a series of murals appeared overnight. 

Queues formed outside a Gorleston seafront shelter for people to pose for photos alongside one, families pilgrimaged to a Great Yarmouth bus stop to analyse another and drivers  at a busy junction in central Lowestoft laughed at the giant seagull swooping on a skip. 

The world-famous street artist, Banksy – whose identity remains the best kept secret in living memory – had paid a visit for a summer spraycation, even managing to leave his mark in the lovely Merrivale Model Village on Great Yarmouth’s Golden Mile. 

Banksy woz here, in little old Lowestoft, Oulton Broad, Gorleston and Great Yarmouth. Families made a day out of touring the murals. 

Standing under the monster 20ft gull on the side of an end-of-terrace house opposite Lowestoft’s train station, with the genius stroke of its beak pointing downwards into a real life full skip beneath, my friend and I, on our Monday evening pilgrimage, were thinking the same thing. 

“How wonderful to wake up to a Banksy on your house. Like winning the Lottery.” 

We were envious of whoever owned that house and had won a small fortune overnight. 

Be careful what you wish for though. While the rest of us were dreaming of all the luxuries a £3million Banksy signature scrawl on our semi could fund, if only he had chosen us, the homeowners were literally counting the cost of owning a Banksy original. 

Our dream was their curse, they said, and they wished the artist had chosen somewhere else to put that wretched gull. It was, they say, a “living nightmare.” 

So they took it down to sell, estimated to reach between £1milion and £3 million, depriving townsfolk and visitors of a much-loved landmark, getting rich along the way. 

Garry and Gokeon Coutts, who live more than 100 miles away in north London, rent their Lowestoft  property to tenants. They told how council officers said it would cost them £40,000 a year for security guards and preservation measures. 

Mr Coutts said it had been so stressful that they hired a 40ft crane to remove it to the dismay of Lowestoft folk so proud that passers-by were reminded that Banksy selected Lowestoft on his 2021 summer of spray. 

Mr Coutts said he had been forced to hire a night watchman to look after it after someone stole part of it and tried to sell it on Facebook. Another time vandals were caught with a dozen pots of white paint and were apparently going to paint over it. 

The retired roofing contractor said the incredible excitement at first had turned into misery and they would turn the clock back if they could, and he was not sure Banksy appreciated the unintended consequences on homeowners when he turns them into overnight millionaires. 

Well, he can say that. He has the artwork and will soon have the money. It feels more than churlish.  

The 22-tonne artwork was removed overnight last month by a 40ft crane. The wall was reinforced with 12 layers of resin, fibreglass and five tonnes of steel before removal. 

Mr and Mrs Coutts said it cost them £50,000 in fees and with other payments yet to be finalised. 

The cost of preservation, it has to be said, is a fraction of the value of the artwork’s worth. The work was designed to create a talking point, to bring people to a town that needs visitors to spend money there. A town that needs a bit of cheering up and is grateful for a new attraction. 

The Coutts have  promised to replace it with a replica. That’s yet to happen, so we’ll see. 

A replica will never be the same. Banksy is all about authenticity. A copy is a fake however you look at it. Everyone will know it’s not the genuine article that Banksy designed and sprayed for the greater good, to  give joy to many, not just wealth to two people. 

I wonder if Mr and Mrs Coutts lived in Lowestoft and were part of the community their decision would have been different, perhaps working with the community to find a way to maintain and preserve that gull for wider enjoyment. 

An original Banksy boosts all house prices in the area, not just the chosen ‘canvas’. The presence of a Banksy can propel the value of properties on a street by 100 per cent. 

Banksy's mural ‘Hula-Hooping Girl’ on Rothesay Ave, Nottingham sold for £2,684,580, (1401 per cent) more compared to surrounding areas. 

The average price for a property here is £178,800. 

The ‘Well Hung Lover’ piece on a home on Frogmore Street sold £1,281,666 more than those in nearby streets,’ £976,577 more than the average sale price (£305,089) of properties in the same postcode area. 

I hope the Coutts do the decent thing and bring back the gull, albeit a replica. It will never be the same, it will also leave a bitter taste but it will at least do something to continue to make people smile in Lowestoft.  

And, now sitting on a fortune by a stroke of luck, they might think of donating some to do good in a town that needs it, perhaps for its young people? It’s the least they can do.