Banksy's Venice Mural Has Been Restored And Will Now Tour City The Art Newspaper International Art News And Events

A Banksy mural that once clung to the façade of a Venetian palazzo has reemerged after restoration, this time near the Arsenale, one of the city's Biennale sites. The work, Migrant Child, was unveiled yesterday following conservation funded by Banca Ifis, which says it will be presented to the public through free projects organized by its cultural arm, Ifis art.

Originally sprayed in 2019 on Palazzo San Pantalon, a 17th-century residence in Venice's Santa Croce district, the mural shows a child wearing a life vest and holding a flare. The image has often been read as a reference to the global refugee crisis. It is one of only two works in Italy officially attributed to Banksy.

The piece had become a familiar stop for tourists, but six years of neglect and exposure to the elements left it badly faded, with about a third of the work deteriorated. Italy's ministry of culture announced in 2023 that the mural would be restored, prompting debate over whether such street art should be conserved or allowed to decay in place.

The following year, Banca Ifis purchased Palazzo San Pantalon and commissioned Zaha Hadid Architects to work on the building's restoration. Federico Borgogni, who also oversaw the 2021 removal of Banksy's Aachoo! from a Bristol house, supervised the analysis and restoration of Migrant Child.

The bank has not said whether the mural will return to Palazzo San Pantalon. For now, its new public life in Venice places the work at the intersection of conservation, tourism, and the uneasy afterlife of street art.

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