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The British street artist secretly bought a former French customs ship and funded a mission to rescue endangered migrants at sea between Libya and Italy.
The British street artist secretly bought a former French customs ship and funded a mission to rescue endangered migrants at sea between Libya and Italy.
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Banksy surprises again and this time not for an artistic performance. Her latest creation is completely painted a striking pink and flies the German flag. The British street artist secretly bought a former French customs ship and funded a mission to rescue endangered migrants at sea between Libya and Italy. The ship, named after a 19th-century French feminist anarchist, Louise Michel, and decorated with graffiti by the British artist, left the Spanish port of Borriana, near Valencia, on August 18. It has already recovered 89 people in the central Mediterranean, including 14 women and two children, reports The Guardian, and is now “seeking a safe port to disembark passengers or transfer them to a European Coast Guard ship.”
Louise Michel, the boat Banksy bought to save migrants
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At 31 meters in length with a crew of ten European activists with long experience in search and rescue at sea, the ship is smaller in size but considerably faster than the usual boats used by NGOs operating in the area, which allows you to outperform the Libyan coast guard. . Of course, the street artist has decorated it in his own way and someone has already defined it as his most beautiful work: in fact it is completely painted pink with the image of a girl holding a heart-shaped safety buoy. .
The story begins in September 2019, with Banksy emailing Pia Klemp, a former captain of several NGO ships that have saved thousands of people in recent years. “Hi Pia, I read your story in the newspapers. You strike me as a tough guy, ”Banksy wrote, according to what Klemp herself told The Guardian. “I am an artist from the UK and have done various works inspired by the migration crisis. Obviously, I can’t keep the money for myself. Could you use them to buy a boat or something? Please let me know. Good job Banksy. ” At first, Klemp thought of a joke, but then realized that it was a serious request and that the artist chose her for her political office. “I do not consider the rescue at sea as a humanitarian action, but as part of an anti-fascist struggle,” he argues, specifying that Banksy’s participation in the operations is limited to financial support. Banksy won’t pretend to know better than we do how to handle a boat and we don’t pretend to be artists. ” But the mission is common: to save lives in an arm of the sea that has become a cemetery.
