The Banksy rat, punched through to make way for a drainpipe.

<div id="main-content-picture"><img alt="The Banksy rat drilled through to make way for a drainpipe" height="276" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/05/17/banksy1.jpg" width="460" /><div> Photograph: EPA</div></div><div id="article-body-blocks"><p>A Melbourne builder has inadvertently destroyed a valuable piece of street art by the British graffiti artist Banksy by drilling a hole through it to put in a bathroom pipe.</p><p>Melbourne resident Tina McKenzie told Australia's Network Ten she had lived above Banksy's Parachuting Rat for almost a decade.</p><p>"Anybody that understands street art and recognises it as more than just vandalism understands that it is something we need to preserve," she said.</p><p>It is the third work by Banksy in the city to be destroyed in the past two years, including one that was painted over in 2010 in a council cleanup.</p><p>Jacqui Vidal, a local gallery owner, said the council needed to be more careful in avoiding the destruction of graffiti artwork.</p><p>"There should have been something noted on the planning permit that that Banksy work had to somehow be avoided," she said.</p><p>Banksy, whose identity is unknown to the public, first drew attention in the early 1990s with stencilled graffiti seen by some as subversive and by others as satire.</p></div>

The Banksy rat, punched through to make way for a drainpipe.

 Photograph: EPA A Melbourne builder has inadvertently destroyed a valuable piece of street art by the British graffiti artist Banksy by dri...

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