A man removing a Banksy artwork that shows what looks like three drones on a traffic stop sign, in southeast London. Photo / AP
A man removing a Banksy artwork that shows what looks like three drones on a traffic stop sign, in southeast London. Photo / AP
The elusive artist Banksy displayed his latest work on a London street corner, and it was taken less than an hour after he confirmed its installation on Friday.
A red stop sign with three military drones on it was taken in the middle of the day by a man with bolt cutters as witnesses snapped photos and shot video in the Peckham section of south London.
People commenting on Banksy’s Instagram accurately predicted it wouldn’t be there long after the artist posted a photo of it. Some of his work has sold for tens of millions of dollars.
He was among the many onlookers who watched as a man in a red-and-black jacket climbed up on a bike next to the post the sign was bolted to and began hitting it with his hands.
The man, with the help of an accomplice, removed the sign less than an hour after it had been posted on Banksy's Instagram page. Photo / AP
“We said, ‘What are you doing?’ but no one really knew what to do, we sort of just watched it happen,” Alex said. “We were all a bit bemused; there was some honking of car horns.”
The man then left and returned a few minutes later with bolt cutters to finish the job. Another man stabilised the Lime rental bike he stood on and he then removed it and ran away.
Banksy’s thought-provoking street art is often seen as making a political statement. His Instagram followers widely interpreted his latest work as calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Hailing from Bristol in the UK, Banksy is known for his instantly recognisable street art — a style often considered to be criminal damage, though his work is worth millions to a property owner if it appears on an outside wall.
The artist has previously visited Palestine, leaving murals on the 8m-high barrier wall separating the West Bank from Israel in 2005, and going to Gaza in 2015 to create a series of murals. He also released a tourism video about Gaza — “Make this the year you discover a new destination,” the caption sarcastically reads. “Welcome to Gaza.”
The video was interspersed with facts about the territory and shows some of the art he did in Gaza.
At the time Banksy’s publicist released a statement to the New York Times:
“I don’t want to take sides. But when you see entire suburban neighbourhoods reduced to rubble with no hope of a future — what you’re really looking at is a vast outdoor recruitment centre for terrorists. And we should probably address this for all our sakes.”
