that was lucky bansky "ikea" was rescued.........Gold Diggers

A turn of events have unfolded over the last month in regards to Banksy’s ‘IKEA Punk’ piece in Croydon, London. Since our initial coverage back in September, it was defaced by vandals in November during a public vote.

This month, two loyal fans , NOT ONE BUT TWO, of the secretive guerilla artist have decided to spend thousands of pounds out of their own pocket to restore the defaced piece, hiring a team of builders to cut out the three-ton section of reinforced concrete wall, lifting it by crane on to a lorry and took it to a secret location where it will be cleaned up.

Nick Loizou, a 30-year-old graphic designer and builder, and Bradley Ridge, a 31-year-old restaurateur, hope to sell the piece once it has been restored to its former glory.

Mr Ridge said: ‘To begin with we thought we would nick the mural,’ he joked. ‘We thought we could cut the Banksy off the wall, flop it on to a mattress and take it away.

‘That wasn’t possible so we thought better of it, and decided to try to save it.’ With the backing of the owners of the wall, concrete company Hanson Premix, Mr Ridge and Mr Loizou drew up their plans to rescue it.... showing true motives now, that makes these 2 worse than those who dogged it in the first place as these two muppetts had the sole intention of financial gain by none other than stealing!!!

The operation was complicated when the team of labourers, carpenters and bricklayers discovered the wall was made of reinforced concrete, not brick as they had assumed.

They spent nine days preparing the wall before it was taken away in a pre-dawn operation on Thursday. During the nine days someone slept by it every night for protection. How nice of them...

ccording to Mr Ridge, Banksy himself has given his blessing to the project through an intermediary, saying: ‘Well done and good luck.’

The future of the mural, once restored, is uncertain. ‘We have a couple of options,’ said Mr Loizou.

‘We really want to sell it to a gallery or a museum so the maximum number of people can enjoy it. But if we can’t do that, there is always eBay.’



And the source "not surprising"