Banksy- Art booth

Spy booth was an artwork by Banksy in England. It appeared a couple months after Edward Snowden’s revealed the widespread phone-tapping by western governments. The artwork shows three secret agents in brown trench coats and trilbies using devices to listen in on conversations at the telephone box. The house it was painted on is a couple blocks away from the UK government surveillance operations. The artwork critiques the global surveillance disclosure of 2013. In February 2015, Cheltenham borough council granted retrospective planning permission, which meant the mural could not be removed without the approval of the council.The art work was either removed or destroyed in August 2016 even though the council prevented it from being removed. The house it was painted on was also sold. It’s unclear whether the mural, which had protected status, was destroyed during the building work or removed beforehand. The artwork has been used by GCHQ as a symbolic image for its "what we do" page.