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Louise Michel: British street artist Banksy funds rescue boat with 89 refugees on board
The boat named Louise Michel, after the French female anarchist, rescued 89 people, including 14 women and four children, at sea on Thursday, the newspaper said, and the crew were seeking to transfer them to a European coastguard vessel or disembark them at a port.
Bristol-based anonymous street artist Banksy is reported funding a rescue boat for refugees attempting to reach Europe from Africa in the Mediterranean.The boat rescued 89 people, including 14 women and four children, at sea on Thursday, and the crew were seeking to transfer them to a European coastguard vessel or disembark them at a port.
Named “Louise Michel” after a French feminist anarchist, the 30-metre long pink and white vessel is a former French Navy boat, featuring an artwork of a girl holding a heart-shaped lifebuoy in Banksy’s familiar stencilled style and the word ‘RESCUE’ spray painted on it, and has been operational since last week. Crewed by European activists experienced in search and rescue, the boat had already participated in two other rescue operations involving a total of 105 people who were transferred to another vessel, Sea-Watch 4, the rescue group said on their website.
The group said the vessel was captained and crewed by a team of rescue professionals drawn from across Europe. Banksy, whose involvement in the operation is limited to providing finance according to a Guardian report, has highlighted refugees and migration in his work.
Also see | PHOTOS: British street artist Banksy funds refugee rescue boat
The Bristol-born artist, who keeps his identity a secret, is known for his political or social-commentary graffiti that has popped up in cities around the world. Last year one of his paintings depicting primates sitting in Britain’s parliament sold for more than $12 million at auction.
In 2015, he sent fixtures from his temporary “Dismaland” theme park in western England to an informal migrant camp in Calais, northern France, once home to thousands of migrants. Later the same year he created a mural of the late Apple founder Steve Jobs at the location.
The artist also recently donated his artwork titled Mediterranean Sea View 2017 to auction company Sotheby’s. The artwork sold for a $2.9 million and the proceeds of the sale will be donated by Banksy to a hospital in Bethlehem in the West Bank. The triptych, originally installed in the lobby of Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, references the European migrant crisis and has been painted in the style of the 19th century seascapes, over used canvases. Referring to one of the 21st century’s biggest crises, the painting shows abandoned lifejackets, oars and buoys washing ashore amid crashing waves, symbolising the migrant lives lost.
He also painted walls in Paris with murals on the theme of migration in 2018. A PR agent who has worked for Banksy in the past did not respond to a request for comment by Reuters.
