BRISBANE'S anti-graffiti squad has been accused of illegally entering private property to paint over a commissioned mural by a world-renowned street artist.

New York-based artist Anthony Lister was last week commissioned to paint a 10m mural in a vacant lot in Fortitude Valley.

The piece took him two days but was "buffed" by Brisbane City Council's Graffiti Reduction Unit less than 48 hours later.

Mr Lister, who was born in Brisbane but lives in Brooklyn, had a letter of permission from the lot owner.

His artwork has attracted international acclaim and has featured in exhibitions in London and New York.

Critics say council's teams are acting as a law unto themselves without consulting stakeholders.

The council in April had to apologise to owners of the Design Bank Building in South Bank after painting over a graffiti-proof chalkboard.

Police linked to the taskforce last year allegedly pinned down aerosol artists who had been paid for a mural at the Brisbane Women's Hockey Association building at Downey Park, Windsor.

Mr Lister was en route to the US but Central Ward councillor David Hinchliffe said the artist was livid at council's actions.

"This is a very heavy-handed approach by council to a sensitive issue," Cr Hinchliffe said.

"I can't understand why council would leave tags that are on public property and yet go into private property without the owner's permission, without any contact with the owner and remove something that is clearly not a tag but a work of art."

Families and Community Services chairwoman Cr Geraldine Knapp said the owners of the vacant lot did not own the building on which the mural was painted.

"The owner of the vacant block had no power to authorise the vandalism of the building at 164 Wickham St," Cr Knapp said.

"The Graffiti Reduction Unit has a longstanding agreement with the owners of 164 Wickham St to remove graffiti and has done so on numerous occasions by accessing the vacant block via a council-owned lock several times this year.

"We received nothing from the artist, the owner of the building or Cr Hinchliffe to suggest they had permission to do the mural, or indeed that work was going to be carried out on site."

Experienced aerosol artists "Mikey" and "Sudsy", said more public artspaces were needed.

"I have children and I don't want to explain to them on a billboard what 'Longer lasting sex' means. I find that offensive. Why does that stay yet artwork is removed?" said Sudsy.

Originally published as Council rubs out graffiti mural