the guardian | by Maev Kennedy
Banksy stencil soars past Hay Wain as UK’s favourite work of art. Bristol street artist’s Girl with Balloon, originally stencil on side of bridge, beats Constable idyll in poll of nation’s best-loved art. An image of a little girl sadly watching her heart-shaped red balloon drift away, originally a stencil on a grimy wall by Banksy, has toppled Constable’s Hay Wain as the nation’s best-loved work of art. The most famous version of Girl with Balloon, by the Bristol-born street artist, appeared on the side of a bridge on the South Bank in London in 2002. Read more
Image| Banksy’s Girl with Balloon on a South Bank wall near the National Theatre in 2004 | Photograph: Alamy