Classic Highway was accidentally painted over: "Very boring of course"

Highway, which was built in 1989 by the crew Still Heavens Only Force, was covered on Tuesday over half with blue paint. And it was after residents in the area reacted to the incident that the overpainting was stopped, which according to the Citizens' Office in Rågsved must have happened by mistake by the center owner.

Tobias Barenthin Lindblad, who is the author of several books on graffiti and lecturers on street art, describes the event as remarkable and very boring.

- As far as I know, the City Museum has been in contact with the property owner a number of years ago and informed that the museum thinks this is important and should be preserved in some way. So not least that's why it's very boring of course, he says.

That this kind of graffiti work from the late 1980s is still very unusual, points out Tobias Barenthin Lindblad. Not least from a Stockholm perspective, given the controversial zero-tolerance policy regarding graffiti and graffiti that existed in the city from 1995 to 2011.

- It is extremely unusual and especially in Stockholm where the city spent a lot of money in the late 1990s and 2000s to control the physical outdoor environment, he says, and continues:

- In public places throughout Sweden, there are maybe two dozen of these types of paintings left over from the 1980s, so they are very, very few. Even at European level, such old public graffiti paintings are extremely unusual.

In the long term, in order to protect this kind of work in the future, Tobias Barenthin Lindblad believes that the National Heritage Agency, which is responsible for cultural heritage and cultural environments, should more strongly signal that this type of contemporary culture is important to preserve.

- I'm pretty sure that if they were to renovate a house today and knock out a mural by Sergel, Zorn or Carl Larsson or some other cherished artist, there would be no talk of it being protected, he says.

After what has now happened: How has the Highway changed?

- It is sad that it is now half painted blue and finished in the middle of the story. It is, after all, a picture of Stockholm's cultural policy and in light of the policy that has taken place in Stockholm, it is a mistake that is very easy to make.

- It will therefore be a fantastic symbol if it can remain as it is now, as some kind of lack of thinking on these issues.

SVT News Stockholm is looking for the center owner for a comment.