From Hollywood to Hoxton, art collectors are prepared to pay big money for anything Banksy does, with his most expensive single piece, Space Girl and Bird, selling for £288,000 at Bonhams in April. But Hackney council doesn't care. "We have to clean up the walls," said a spokeswoman, confirming that the street cleaners are ready to blast some of modern British art's most distinctive images away as part of a zero-tolerance policy. "We can't make a decision as to whether something is art or graffiti. The Government judges us on the number of clean walls we have."

You dirty rat: Street cleaners prepare to blast Bansky away, nzherald.co.nz

Link added 7 November: Wooster Collective celebrating street art.