A club in East London is fighting a legal battle with its ex-employer over the ownership of a Banksy mural once painted over its office wall.
The mural Yellow Lines Flower Painter appeared on the walls of the office of Bethnal Green Working Man’s Club in 2007. The mural features a working man in his dungarees sitting on a paint can and holding paint rollers. The two yellow lines from the sidewalk extend over to the mural, forming a sunflower.
This mural is at the centre of the lawsuit filed by the club against its ex-employee, Warren Dent, and other parties. Dent, who now works at the firm Capital & Co., used to work as an accountant at the club. According to the three trustees who filed the lawsuit – Paul Le Masurier, Alan Milliner, and Kerry Smorthit – Dent removed the mural without any ownership or permission, and unlawfully put it up for sale in the US.
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However, according to Warren Dent, club secretary Stephen Smorthit had sold the mural to him in 2019 for £20,000 ($27,000). Dent then commissioned Chris Bull to remove the mural and restore it (it had been vandalized by graffiti previously). After the restoration, Dent and three club members agreed to loan the work to a gallery owned by Bull’s father in Aspen, Colorado. Before it was shipped, the mural was insured for an amount of, $750,000. Regarding the lawsuit, Bull, who is also named a defendant, said: “We’re only named because we’re in possession of the work and we’re up for giving it up if we’re asked to.”
