NEWS COPY – WITH PICTURES – By Alisha Rouse
The owner of a property where Banksy daubed his ‘Spybooth’ artwork claims the mural has made his life a misery.
David Possee could have expected a windfall after the work was sprayed onto the side of his end-of-terrace property near the Government’s GCHQ listening post.
But after the stencil was granted Grade II listed status he is unable to remove and sell the artwork and cannot carry out building work to make the house habitable.
As a result he cannot rent out the property, which is standing empty.
Mr Possee says he’s been harassed by “malicious busybodies” and now just wants to sell the property in Cheltenham, Glos., so he can “get on with my life”.
He said: “If Cheltenham want it, they can have it. Just buy the building off me, I just want to get on with my life.
“Cut me free, you can have the Cheltenham Banksy.”
Spybooth features three 1950s-style spies eavesdropping on a phonebox on the side of the #300,000 property.
It appeared in April last year but soared in value when Banksy confirmed it was one of his pieces.
The wall was boarded up but a bidding war ensued as locals tried to raise an estimated #1million to secure it for the town.
Eventually a local businessman claimed to have raised a six-figure sum to buy it but this fell through.
It was feared the chunk of wall could be removed and sold but last month Cheltenham Borough Council voted to incorporate the mural into the building’s existing Grade II listed status.
This means Mr Possee now cannot carry out urgent repairs to strengthen and re-render the walls.
He said: “If this had been any other artist, it [the listed status] would have been laughed out of the chambers. I have no idea where I go from here.
“I can fight it, I’ve been told it’s illegal. But that means I have to use my own money to go to High Court and get it quashed.
He said the council “agreed in principle” to protect the mural when he first approached them for help.
Speaking to community radio station Swindon 105.5, he said: “They didn’t come up with any sort of ideas. So I suggested Perspex but they said it’s against listed consent.
“They just said ‘you can’t put that on there’ and I was threatened with a fine. They offered no alternative.
“I think it deserves to stay in Cheltenham, but obviously it is difficult to re-render a house that has that artwork on it.
“It’s sat empty now, and it can’t stay that way forever.
“At the end of the day, we can sit and let gravity take an effect and the decision will be made for us.”
Mr Possee has even been targeted by men posing as “millionaire architects” trying to buy the building, who turned out to be frauds.
Controversy has surrounded the piece since its arrival, leaving the landlord inundated with “malicious messages” from locals desperate to keep it in the town.
He added: “Some busybody from Cheltenham even came up with this idea that I didn’t own that part of the house. There’s not a ‘pretty strong certainty’ that I own it, it is certain that I do.
“I take a bit of umbrage with people getting involved with my business when it’s nothing to do with them.
“I read that the council were working closely with the owner of the property to sort it out, but I am the owner of the property and I can tell you they weren’t. They weren’t working closely with me at all.
“I’ve had substantial offers from people who collect this kind of art work and if it was about money for me I’d have sold it by now.”
Seeing the Banksy for the first time when he arrived back from holiday in April 2014, David said he thought it was “quite nice” and liked the new addition before the problems began.
The piece has been seen as a critique of the global surveillance disclosures of 2013.
However, it is thought the mural has tripled the value of Mr Possee’s home.
ENDS
