After a long process, Sweden's only culturally marked graffiti painting Fascinate (1989) has now been demolished.
The work was painted by Circle and the now famous director Tarik Saleh - it was a legal painting commissioned by the owner of the building.
The wall stood in the Stockholm suburb of Bromsten, where a new residential area is now taking shape and the place it stood on will become a playground.
- It feels very sad, not completely unexpected, but still sad, says art critic Jacob Kimvall to Kulturnyheterna.
Widely different descriptions
The background for Fascinate being leveled to the ground is that the development office demolished the industrial building whose façade the painting was on.
After that, only the wall with Fascinate remained, it had a special cultural-historical protection against demolition which is popularly called "K-marking".
However, a free-standing wall was both unstable and dangerous, said the development office.
At the same time, they made the assessment that the painting was in such poor condition that it would take too much damage if the wall was secured.
Art critic Jacob Kimvall and the Beauty Council did not agree and pointed out, among other things, that Fascinate was recently preserved to keep.
Politicians: Too risky
The political majority in the city planning committee removed the protection marking in May so that the wall could be demolished.
- The painting was very important culturally and historically, but the big issue here is about safety, says Johan Nilsson (M), chairman of the development committee.
The cost of trying to secure the wall and preserve the painting would have been ten million kronor, but according to Johan Nilsson (M) had still not given guaranteed results.
- Building in Stockholm costs an enormous amount of money and ten million is not much in this context - it could have been invested.
But if it is still not certain that it will last ... then it felt very difficult to say yes, he says.
Hear art critic Jacob Kimvall in the clip.