The case concerned a Banksy mural called ‘Art Buff’, which appeared on the back of a leasehold property in September 2014 during the Folkestone Triennial, a public art event organised by the Creative Foundation.
Just over a month after it first appeared, the tenant of the property, Dreamland, arranged for ‘Art Buff’ to be cut out of the wall, without the landlord’s knowledge or permission, and then sent to the US where it was offered for sale.
In a judgment handed down in The Creative Foundation v Dreamland Leisure Limited [2015] EWHC 2556 (Ch), the High Court held that a tenant was not entitled to remove a Banksy mural from the wall of its leasehold property and must deliver it up to the claimant. As well as being one of the first cases to consider the ownership of street art, it also raises points of general importance in landlord and tenant law.
http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/practice-points/who-owns-street-art/5051041.fullarticle
