A group of people wearing masks spray-painted over street art in Melbourne’s iconic Hosier Lane on Saturday, according to footage of the incident posted online.
The lane, around the corner from Federation Square and just off Flinders Street, is adorned with a wide variety of street art and is usually a go-to destination for tourists visiting the city.
Melbourne street artist Lush’s art on the lane went viral in 2016 with a memorial to Taylor Swift, quickly being updated to Harambe, followed by Kanye West, during Swift’s very public feud with West and his wife, Kim Kardashian.
Most recently the lane had art featuring the late Kobe Bryant, comedian Celeste Barber – who raised tens of millions of dollars for bushfire recovery – and music superstar Lizzo.
The footage appears to show about a dozen people wearing masks descending on the lane with large canisters – similar to fire extinguishers – filled with paint, which they sprayed over the walls of Hosier Lane, leaving the art covered by cloudy streaks of paint.
Footage of the incident, which also captured a drone flying overhead, was posted on Instagram.
Masked men have armed themselves with fire extinguishers and sprayed over the precious graffiti art in Melbourne’s iconic Hosier Lane. @cityofmelbourne looking into it. Video courtesy of Instagram/joe_musco @10NewsFirstMelb #springst @10NewsFirst (and thanks @RossAndJohn 4 tip) pic.twitter.com/Shbrb26OA6
— Simon Love (@SimoLove) February 9, 2020
It’s pretty common to find some works tagged but street art fans say this is too extreme and is simply vandalism https://t.co/5KGE3qhX9W pic.twitter.com/WqI51U1yW3
— Pat Mitchell (@patty_mitchell) February 9, 2020
Melbourne’s lord mayor, Sally Capp, told Guardian Australia that Hosier Lane was recognised as a longstanding street art site, and while it was “temporary, ephemeral and forever changing”, what was done over the weekend was not street art.
“This is unacceptable and is not in keeping with the spirit of Hosier Lane,” she said. “We see this act as vandalism, particularly given the damage they’ve done to the pavement and cobblestones.”
Council contractors were sent to the site on Monday morning to clean the cobblestones and curbing.
Victoria police also confirmed it has received a complaint from the City of Melbourne over the attack.
The street art on Hosier Lane is in a legally grey area, with the City of Melbourne attempting to distinguish between street art – which is allowed with the permission of the owner of the wall – and vandalism, which is not.
