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# Excavating Banksy
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/excavating-banksy/
- Published: 2011-09-14T17:30:12.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:37:02.000Z
- Description: Artist Brad Downey's latest art project excavated the classic 2003 Banksy mural titled, "Every Picture Tells a Lie," for an exhibition in Berlin. What will happen to the work, which restorers uncovered by scraping away more than a dozen layers of paint, no one knows yet.
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: News, #image-position-hidden, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/09/banksy-excavation-home.jpg "banksy-excavation-HOME")

Artist Brad Downey’s, whose project often involve [hacking the city](http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2010/08/brad-downey-in-germany-beneath-paving.html?ref=hyperallergic.com), has stirred up many interesting questions about society, time and ephemerality with his latest art project that excavates a classic 2003 Banksy mural titled, “Every Picture Tells a Lie,” for a [gallery show in Berlin](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14916044?ref=hyperallergic.com). What will happen to the work, which restorers uncovered by scraping away more than a dozen layers of paint, no one knows yet. According to the [Daily Mail](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2037044/Early-Banksy-preserved-posterity-expert-restorers-circa-2003.html?ref=hyperallergic.com#ixzz1XwirCssU), the gallery says “it may be painted over again or sold to an interested collector.”

According to [ArtLyst](http://www.artlyst.com/articles/iconic-banksy-mural-restored-in-berlin?ref=hyperallergic.com):

> Brad lists the materials as “restored/extracted ‘Banksy’ Installation (originally painted in 2003 for the exhibition *Backjumps- Volume:1*), red paint,” the piece is part of a show curated by Adrian Nabi called *Do Not Think!* Adrian Nabi also recently curated the *Backjumps* show.