Art wars.

On the left there is/was a piece of stencilled graffiti art ala Banksy but probably not by him. As you can see it has pretty much been obliterated.

It got me thinking about our treatment of street art. An artist I know was livid because a tagger had written all over a Banksy, saying it was desecration by a moron and that it should be treasured like gallery art. But if he's using the public wall as canvas shouldn't he/we abide by the same rules of graffiti art as everybody. When the time comes you are fair game to be superseded by the next person? Just as they in turn will be.

Because he paints clever pictures and not just illegible words does that make him better with more right to remain untouched?