Title: Migrant Crisis

Artist: Not Banksy

Size:  H 42cm x W 53cm

Media: Screen Print on 300 GSM watercolour paper

For Sale:

Mediterranean Sea View – Issue 2/2 PP (printers proof)

Mediterranean Sea View 2/5 

Mediterranean Sea View 5/5

About the original: Painted for and displayed in the lobby of the “Walled Off Hotel" then donated to ABCD Bethlehem. When the originals where listed for sale at Sotheby’s, a spokesperson for Banksy explained; “All proceeds will go towards building a new acute stroke unit and purchasing children’s rehabilitation equipment for BASR hospital in Bethlehem.

The work was created for display over a rubble filled fireplace, in the colonial style hotel lobby. Comprising three found oil paintings, each traditionally framed and depicting tumultuous seascapes reminiscent of romantic era paintings and present day imitations.

Banksy reworked the original compositions by adding a slew of hand-painted life jackets and buoys; a visual amendment that evokes mass death at sea.

Mediterranean Sea View 2017 alludes to the lives lost at sea during the European migrant crisis of the 2010.

Seeking international protection from countries riven by armed-conflict or social unrest, many of the refugees who arrived in Italy and Greece crossed the Mediterranean Sea by boat; a risky and dangerous crossing that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands during this period.

The “Walled Off Hotel” is touted by the Banksy as having ‘the worst view in the world’, the hotel overlooks the highly controversial Israeli West Bank barrier which separates Israel from the Palestinian territories and carves Bethlehem into a double U-shape.

The hotel opened in 2017 as Bethlehem’s own answer to the ‘Waldorf’, offers guests a range of rooms from utilitarian bunk-bed dormitories to presidential suites, in which every space, corner and crevice is crammed with the sardonic word-play and dark visual gags of Banksy’s artwork.

The wall’s towering concrete slabs which stand just 5 metres from the hotel’s entrance, have played host to many works by the artist who has visited with frequency since the mid 2000.