Banksy: I'm glad my Valentine's Day painting was vandalised

Banksy has said he’s “kind of glad” vandals scrawled over his latest piece of street art because his “initial sketch” was a lot better anyway.

The enigmatic artist shared the comments in an Instagram post this afternoon, a week after the mural first appeared on a building in the Barton Hill area of Bristol.

In a nod to Valentine’s Day, the artwork depicted a young girl firing roses from a slingshot which erupted into an explosion of red flowers.

But hours after Banksy claimed ownership of the piece, the words “BCC W******" were spray-painted across it in pink.

Residents expressed their regret at the sabotage, saying: "It's a real shame, but it was always going to happen, unfortunately."

But the artist himself suggested he was unphased by the incident, writing on Thursday: “I’m kind of glad the piece in Barton Hill got vandalised.

“The initial sketch was a lot better...”

Alongside the message to his 7.4 million followers he shared draft drawings of the girl, showing how experimented with different positions.

The post was liked by more than 430,000 people within three hours, with one writing “love to see the process”.

However, residents in Barton Hill have been less laissez-faire about the vandalism.

The family whose property became the canvas for the work have installed temporary fencing around it.

They also plan to install CCTV to ward off further unwanted amendments.