Bury St Edmunds rugby players help lift Banksy from museum

A group of players from Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club volunteered to lift artwork from Moyse's Hall Museum

A team of rugby players were called to move a Banksy mural which had originally been sprayed on the side of a building.

Bury St Edmunds RUFC members helped lift the 1.5-tonne Sandcastle Girl from Moyse's Hall Museum in the town.

The piece was created by Banksy during his 'Great British Spraycation' in Norfolk and Suffolk in 2021.

Art collector John Brandler loaned the mural to the museum for an exhibition which came to an end on Sunday.

West Suffolk's councillor for leisure and culture, Ian Shipp, visited the exhibition

The work, of a child with a crowbar, appeared on the side of an electrical shop in Lowestoft and was later removed and sold.

The Urban Frame: Mutiny in Colour exhibition ran simultaneously across three sites in West Suffolk - the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket, Moyse's Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds, and Haverhill Arts Centre - from 3 June to 1 October.

Rugby club chairman, Craig Germeney, said the club had been contacted by the museum asking for help to move the wall on which the painting was sprayed.

Despite feeling anxious over moving the expensive piece, he said the club wanted to do their bit "for the community".

The players were tasked with carrying the piece out of the museum, to a waiting crane and lorry.

Rugby player Will Kingston gave his teammates some important advice ahead of the lift: "Just don't drop it."

Mr Brandler said Sandcastle Girl had gone to a warehouse while she awaited her next exhibition.

"I might well be lending [her] to a museum in Monza, Italy, because they've got a Banksy show on at the moment," he said. Banksy was not involved with the shows in Suffolk or Italy.

He recently brought his first official solo exhibition in 14 years to a close - with Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art playing host to Cut and Run.