The appearance of a new Banksy mural appeared on a house in Bristol, England, last week had the potential to complicate the planned sale of the property that the street artist chose as his latest canvas. But according to a report by the BBC, the owner of the house, listed for £340,000 (about $453,000), intends to move forward with the sale.
ITV News West Country and other British outlets had reported that Aileen Makin had pulled the house, which is located on Vale Street, from the market following the painting’s reveal. One of Makin’s family members told the BBC that the sale had been put “on hold” for 48 hours following the discovery of the work.
“When you wake up to tabloids saying your house is now worth £5 million you’ve got to think about what you’re doing,” Nick Makin, Aileen’s son, told the BBC, adding that the mural isn’t “changing anything in terms of the house sale for us.”
“We think it should be protected and stay where it is,” Nick Makin told the publication. He also said that the family was considering “getting a covenant put into the deeds of the house” regarding the preservation of the mural.
The Banksy work, which depicts a woman in the middle of a violent sneeze, caused a stir in Bristol last week. It was the latest surprise artwork in an eventful year for the artist, which saw another mural on view in the English city of Nottingham, sky-high auction sales, and an effort to fund a boat intended to carry refugees across the Mediterranean.