A new Banksy artwork in south London has been taken down just hours after the artist confirmed it as a genuine installation.
Images shows a man standing on a Lime e-bike, using a set of plyers to remove the piece on Commercial Way, Peckham, while another man held the bicycle steady at around 12.30pm.
It came just hours after Banksy took to social media to reveal his new piece – a stop sign showing three aircraft resembling drones.
While the artist didn’t provide any explanation on his Instagram page, the work has been interpreted as calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
This is not the first time Banksy’s art work has been removed shortly after being put on display.
A mural weighing 3.8 tonnes called Valentine’s Day Mascara, which appeared on the side of a house in Margate, Kent, was dismantled some hours after Banksy had shared a series of photos of it online. The mural depicted a 1950s’ housewife with a swollen eye and missing tooth, wearing an apron and yellow washing-up gloves, and throwing a man into a chest freezer. At the time the resident of the property where the painting was created, said the freezer and other items including a broken garden chair used for the artwork had been removed “very quickly” and put into a truck.
In September the mural was placed in the foyer of The Art of Banksy exhibition in Regent Street, central London, where it can be viewed for free. The exhibition features pieces including Girl With Balloon, Flower Thrower and Rude Copper and also focuses on Banksy’s Dismaland, The Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem and recent works acknowledging the ongoing war in Ukraine.
In 2020 Transport for London (TfL) removed Banky’s Covid-19 related artwork from a London Underground carriage due to its “strict anti-graffiti policy”.
New Banksy artwork in Peckham taken down hours after being confirmed as genuine
