Letters: Anger over Banksy in Bristol report

I was shocked and disappointed at the front page of the Post on Friday, June 12, "Banksy: World Exclusive".

The write-up by David Clensy was both provocative and puerile.

He tells us that "the world's most famous living artist" is favouring us with an exhibition of his works at the Bristol City Museum and that our fair city of Bristol is about to be swamped by "hundreds of thousands of art lovers from all round the world".

No doubt they will be queuing for days, with chequebooks in hand, eager to buy his latest masterpiece, Ice cream cone dropped in a pile of dog mess.

Although the article says that none of the works in the Bristol exhibition will be for sale, I'm sure Banksy will not be able to resist the lucrative offers for prints of his Queen Victoria as a Lesbian.

Mr Clensy goes on to say that the surprise show will come as a shock to the city as only a few people knew of Banksy's plans.

Surely the real shock to the city is that the Post has given so much space and coverage to promote this person, who in my opinion is a pathetic graffiti artist who has become successful and famous not through his talent but through his notoriety.

In the absence of Banksy, who is still hiding in the closet, maybe Mr Clensy could explain to the loved ones of all the victims murdered by suicide bombers the deep artistic significance of Banksy's masterpiece showing Michelangelo's David wearing a suicide bomber's jacket.

There has always been controversy in the world of art and there always will be, but this is nothing to do with art. Defiling real works of art is the sort of thing mindless yobs do.

Before someone points out that Banksy has made a lot of money out of this, may I remind you that a very rich American businessman once said: "No one has ever lost money by overestimating the public's bad taste."

In this case, however, it's not the bad taste of the public as a whole but a small minority who are prepared to support anything that is crude, anti-social or anti-establishment.

Banksy has been allowed through the backdoor of our beautiful city museum to exhibit his tasteless yob culture.

Mr Kim Pomphrey, Yate.