Banksy's 'Girl with the Pierced Eardrum' vandalised in Bristol

A new mural by elusive graffiti artist Banksy has been vandalised just 24 hours after it appeared on a wall in Bristol, his hometown.

The latest piece from the artist, a parody of Johannes Vermeer’s masterpiece Girl with a Pearl Earring called The Girl with the Pierced Eardrum, features a yellow alarm box as the figure’s iconic piece of jewellery.

Banksy confirmed that the piece, which appeared on the exterior wall of a recording studio in Hanover Place, was his on his website on Monday. By Tuesday, it had been splattered with black paint.

Tenant Ellie Morgan, who is joint owner of the recording studio, said: “It’s a real shame and a bit annoying. Someone just snuck down, did it and then snuck off.”

“One of the bands that was recording came in and said someone had thrown paint on it. When we went out it was still wet and dripping. Banksy had already been back to touch it up once. Hopefully he will come back and touch it up again.”

Banksy has been a victim of vandals before. Earlier this month, a penis was spray-painted on one of his murals two weeks after it appeared on a wall in Folkestone, Kent.

It followed an attack on another piece, which targeted the issue of government surveillance painted next to a phonebox near GCHQ in Cheltenham.

The artist also came under fire in Clacton-on-Sea, in Essex, earlier this month when the council removed an artwork depicting five grey pigeons abusing a migratory swallow on the grounds that it contained “offensive and racist remarks”.

The piece appeared a week ahead of a byelection in the town in the east of England triggered by the local MP Douglas Carswell, who decided to defect from the Conservative Party to Ukip. It showed the pigeons holding up signs which read “go back to Africa”, “migrants not welcome”, and “keep off our worms” at the colourful bird. Ukip argues that Britain’s immigration policies need to be tightened.

In 2009, a Banksy piece in Bristol titled Mild Mild West, showing a comic bear throwing a petrol bomb at three cowering policemen, was daubed in red paint by members of a protest group who claimed artists like Banksy were “poor little middle class white boys” who were “gentrifying” urban areas.