Venice rediscovers its Banksy: restored The Migrant Child

In Venice, Banca Ifis has completed the rescue and restoration of The Migrant Child, the work created by Banksy on the facade of Palazzo San Pantalon in Venice in May 2019. The intervention, launched in 2023 after a joint appeal launched by the Ministry of Culture, the City of Venice and the Veneto Region, now marks a new phase with the work’s return to the city and its public unveiling as part of the 61st Venice Biennale. The unveiling of the restored work took place on Thursday, May 7, 2026 in the spaces of Tesa 113 in the Venice Arsenal during the event Curated by Heart, in the presence of Banca Ifis President Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio, Veneto Region President Luca Zaia, and 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi.

The conclusion of the restoration thus completes an articulated recovery process that included securing the building, removing the work from the deteriorated facade of Palazzo San Pantalon, and a long series of conservation interventions necessitated by the extreme environmental conditions in which the mural had been located for years. The work, in fact, had been progressively compromised by humidity, saltiness and continuous exposure to the elements, aggravated by the state of deterioration of the building overlooking one of the city’s busiest canals.

The Migrant Child had suddenly appeared on the night of May 8-9, 2019, during the days of the 58th Venice Art Biennale. Banksy, whose presence in the city had not been officially announced, had created the mural directly on the facade of Palazzo San Pantalon, just inches from the water of the canal. The work depicts a migrant child wearing a life jacket, submerged in water up to his legs and with his right arm raised upward while holding a pink smoke flashlight. The mural was recognized by Banksy himself through his Instagram profile and was immediately interpreted as a denunciation of the tragedies related to migration in the Mediterranean Sea and the plight of minors caught up in the migratory flows. Even today The Migrant Child represents one of only two works officially recognized by the artist in Italy.

In the years following its creation, the deterioration of the work had caused growing concern among cultural institutions and the public. Indeed, the extremely vulnerable position of the mural, placed flush with water, had accelerated the process of deterioration, making urgent intervention necessary to prevent the work’s ultimate loss. In 2024, Banca Ifis acquired Palazzo San Pantalon, initiating an extensive restoration and redevelopment project for the building that is expected to be completed during 2027. Once the work is completed, The Migrant Child will be relocated to its original location and permanently returned to the city.

“With the rescue of Banksy’s ’Migrant Child,’” says Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio, president of Banca Ifis, “we wanted to respond concretely to the call of the institutions, assuming a responsibility that we feel is deeply ours: to preserve and make accessible a heritage that is both artistic and civic. This work, both fragile and powerful, speaks a universal language of peace, inclusion and human rights and invites us not to give in to indifference. The path that is completed today shows how decisive is the collaboration between public and private in transforming a protection intervention into a project for the future, capable of giving back to the community not only a work, but also its deeper meaning. Ifis art is part of this commitment, through which we promote art and culture as levers of social growth and dialogue with the territory, making them accessible to an ever wider public and involving in particular the new generations. Urban art, with its direct and immediate force, is a valuable tool for reading reality and bringing urgent issues of our time into public space. And it is precisely here, in Venice - an open city and historical symbol of dialogue between different worlds - that this message finds its most authentic expression.”

The rescue of The Migrant Child is part of the broader program of cultural initiatives promoted by Ifis art, the project through which Banca Ifis supports contemporary art, heritage enhancement and cultural dissemination. Through this platform, the bank promotes art as a tool for social growth and dialogue with the territory, with particular attention to the new generations. On the occasion of the unveiling of the restored mural, Banca Ifis also organized in the spaces of Tesa 113 a series of screenings of the documentary Ifis art. The value of beauty produced by Sky Arte. The documentary, written by Eleonora Angius and directed by Francesco Antoine with the narrative voice of Alessandro Sperduti, recounts the main cultural projects supported by Ifis art in recent years.

The narrative starts right from the recovery of The Migrant Child and then delves into other protection and enhancement interventions promoted by the bank, including the restoration of Antonio Canova’s plaster busts, support for the Pinacoteca di Brera and the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, as well as the creation of the Villa Fürstenberg International Sculpture Park in Mestre. The Park, which will be inaugurated in 2023 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the founding of Banca Ifis, will host 26 works by Italian and international artists distributed in the 22 hectares of Villa Fürstenberg’s garden. The project represents one of the most relevant Italian experiences of corporate collection and corporate social responsibility, with activities open to the public free of charge through guided tours, workshops and educational programs.

Alongside the conservation and cultural dimension, the recovery of The Migrant Child also gave rise to a new national educational project developed by Banca Ifis in collaboration with Treccani. The initiative, entitled Migrant Child - Rights at Work, will involve Italian secondary schools in the 2026-2027 school year. The program includes an inaugural event in Rome in October 2026, the distribution of digital educational kits, and a national contest that will invite students to create collective murals within their schools. The works will be evaluated by a scientific committee and awarded during a closing ceremony scheduled for May 2027. According to the promoters, street art represents a privileged tool to stimulate critical awareness and reflection on human rights, especially among the new generations raised in an environment dominated by visual communication. The goal is to strengthen the link between civic education and creativity through a participatory approach capable of promoting knowledge, empathy and responsibility.

Venice rediscovers its Banksy: restored The Migrant Child

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