A bitter row has broken out between a British art dealer and an Italian exhibitions company over three enormous Banksy murals that were loaned three years ago and which the dealer insured for £15m.
John Brandler, an Essex-based specialist in work by the graffiti artist, is pursuing legal action after losing patience with Metamorfosi in Rome, which stages temporary touring exhibitions.
The three works are on the original walls on which they were stencilled. They include Season’s Greetings, in which a little boy plays while breathing polluted smoke. It had appeared on the side of an unassuming garage near the Port Talbot steelworks in 2018. Brandler purchased it from the garage owner. Weighing 5.5 tonnes, it is 2.2 metres high and 2.5 metres wide.
The other murals are Heart Boy, in which a little boy paints a large pink heart, and Computer Robot, which depicts a child with a robot.
Brandler understands that they were displayed in an exhibition seen in Italy and Switzerland and he has been seeking the final loan payment as well as the murals’ return.
He said that an initial two-year contract was extended for a year with a monthly loan fee: “Within a few months, they were late paying the loan fee and they got to the stage where they were always about six weeks behind paying the loan fee. They’re now four months behind on the last payment. The show finished on 6 June … I still don’t have the final payment [and] I haven’t got my Banksys back.”
Brandler doubts their assurances that he will be paid because another London dealer and leading Banksy specialist, Acoris Andipa, claims the Italian company owes him £45,000 for curatorial services and that, despite repeated assurances from them, he has been chasing them for over two years. Andipa told the Guardian: “I don’t know what we can do. I’ve had my lawyers on them.”
Brandler said he had contacted the Italian embassy and the insurance company, Lloyd’s of London, to put in a claim. In a statement, Pietro Folena and Vittorio Faustini of Metamorfosi said: “Metamorfosi is a well-established and prestigious company that organises major exhibitions in Italy and around the world in collaboration with and with the support of leading museums.”
They argued that, over the past three years, they had “always paid the monthly instalments”, apart from the last one as they said they were awaiting invoices and tax documentation.
They said that they had tried repeatedly to return the murals, beginning on 3 June – three days before the exhibition closed – when they asked Brandler for the relevant address.
They have an email, dated 5 June, in which Brandler acknowledged storage problems and proposed that they keep them until October at no additional cost. When asked about the email, Brandler highlighted that he was still owed the last payment relating to the murals’ display.
Metamorfosi said: “This shows that Metamorfosi immediately initiated the procedures for returning the works …
“We also confirm to you that we are organising the return and that it will take place by the end of September … In [an] email of 29 August, Mr Brandler states that he will not accept delivery of the walls unless he receives payment. This, as you understand, further strengthens our position …
“As for matters relating to our dealings with Mr Acoris Andipa, these are commercial matters that have no bearing on the issue raised.”