Banksy’s 1.5 tonne Sandcastle Girl has to be moved by local burly rugby players as it’s sent to Italy for exhibition
- Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club called in to shift mural from Moyse’s Hall Museum
Burly rugby players showed their muscle as they helped move Banksy‘s 1.5-tonne Sandcastle Girl from a museum.
Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club was called to shift the mural out of Moyse’s Hall Museum, in Suffolk, when staff were told they wouldn’t be able to help as they might hurt themselves.
The mural, depicting a girl in a sunhat holding a crowbar, was loaned to the museum for an exhibition which came to an end on Sunday.
It originally appeared on the side of an old electrical shop in seaside town Lowestoft. Locals were outraged when owners of the building, Gary and Nadine Schwart, ripped it from the wall and sold it privately for a reported £2million.
Art collector John Brandler, who loaned the mural to the museum, said ‘museum staff were told they weren’t allowed to physically help me because it’s big and heavy and they could have hurt themselves when they moved it in’.
‘So panic,’ he said. ‘I needed people I could trust so I rang Bury Rugby Club.’
Chairman of Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club, Craig Germeney, said they often get requests for help but this was by far the most ‘nerve-wracking’.
‘We get a few requests from the community to help in projects where we feel we can make a difference,’ he said.
‘This was the most nerve-racking request. We helped move a memorial flower thing earlier in the year, but definitely this is the most expensive thing we’ve moved.’
The six-strong team wheeled the mural out of the museum doors – where it got slightly stuck – before it was craned onto the back of the truck.
Mr Brandler wanted to loan the artwork to the museum in Bury St Edmunds because of his love of the town.
‘Me and my partner Linda love Bury St Edmunds. It’s an amazing town. It’s got a real community spirit. Artwork is there to be seen,’ he added.
The truck made a stop in Newmarket to pick up another Banksy mural – Hula Hoop Girl from the National Horse Racing Museum.
Mr Brandler told the BBC Sandcastle Girl was now in a warehouse as it awaits its next exhibition.
It could soon be on its way to Monza, in Italy, ‘because they’ve got a Banksy show on at the moment’, he said.
Banksy created the artwork as part of his A Great British Spraycation works which saw a string of street art pieces appear in Suffolk and Norfolk within a week.
The elusive artist was seen working on eight new pieces in a video, which he uploaded to his Instagram account.