The owner of the door, Rabea Darduna, filed a complaint with a Gaza court stating that, without realizing its value, he sold the door for just $175 U.S.
The
iron door will remain in the possession of the Khan Younis police in
southern Gaza until a court hearing at a date yet to be determined.
When
Darduna's Gaza home was destroyed in last summer's war, he says he felt
he was left with nothing. Only a doorway and a door. He sold the door
to bring in some money to care for his six children, not realizing the
prize he had.
"We sold it as we would sell an iron door," Darduna said Monday, "for $175. And the man took it."
Darduna
says he was duped into believing the door was a normal door when it was
really a canvas for Banksy, one of the world's most famous graffiti
artists, who had painted a Greek goddess with her head in her hand. The
door was likely worth a small fortune -- a fortune Darduna gave away for
a fraction of its value.
"Things
started becoming clear that the artist is worldwide famous, and he drew
it secretly," said Darduna. "[The buyer] used us. My house is
demolished. We're destroyed emotionally. We ask him to return the door."
Banksy's graffiti in Gaza has become an attraction after he visited in February
and painted a series of political messages. His works adorn walls and
homes turning rubble into riches. Some of Banksy's art has sold for
hundreds of thousands of dollars. Banksy has never revealed his
identity, but he is an English graffiti artist who began displaying his
work in the early 1990s. His street art often portrays political and
social messages.
Mohammed Alshanbari
says he's had offers for Banksy's portrait of a cat playing with a ball
of mangled metal, but he refuses to sell.
In
text accompanying the image on his official website, Banksy wrote: "A
local man came up and said 'Please -- what does this mean?' I explained I
wanted to highlight the destruction in Gaza by posting photos on my
website -- but on the internet people only look at pictures of kittens."
Alshanbari says he's looking after the mural on the wall where his house once stood.
"A
lot of people showed up and people asked to buy it, but I'm keeping it,
and I won't sell it," he says. "It's a graffiti from the most famous
artist in the world, and I can't give it away. It stands where the house
used to stand. I cleared a lot of rubble, but left the wall."
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