Daylight Robbery! Has Banksy’s New Animal Artwork in London Already Been Stolen?
Banksy has just debuted yet another new animal artwork in London—the fourth this week! This time, the silhouette of a howling wolf has appeared on a white satellite dish that resembles a full moon in Peckham, south London.
The work has already been dismantled and carried away by a troop of hooded figures, who accessed it by scaling a charity shop with a ladder. The motive of the men is not yet clear, but their actions have been captured in a shocking new sequence of photographs taken by onlookers. Has this brand new Banksy been stolen already?
The Bristol-based street artist shot to fame in the 2000s for his incisive, satirical commentary on society and now his artworks are highly prized. This would hardly be the first time they have attracted the attention of thieves, though previous offenses have resulted in harsh prison sentences. In June, a Paris judicial court gave one man a whopping €30,000 ($32,000) fine for stealing a Banksy mural of a rat with a box cutter that had appeared on a billboard near the Centre Pompidou.
Though they may no longer be able to enjoy Banksy’s fourth artwork this week, Londoners have once again been left puzzling over its possible meaning.
All four of the anonymous street artist’s new works have used the natural world to make visual puns out of the everyday urban architecture, allowing us to see these features in a new light. Take for instance the goat perching precarious on a ledge or the elephants reaching out to each other from neighboring blocked-out windows, both in west London. Yesterday, three monkeys appeared swinging along the indent on an overpass on Brick Lane in east London.
People remove a new artwork by Banksy, depicting a howling wolf painted on a satellite dish that was placed on a shop roof in Peckham, south London. Photo: Jordan Pettitt/ PA Images via Getty Images.
According to the BBC, this new series of artworks will end this week.
The artworks, all in the artist’s trademark black silhouette style, have been claimed by Banksy on Instagram. He has not offered any explanation for the images, prompting a scrum of speculation about their possible significance in the comments section.
With each passing day, it has been harder to draw an meaningful connection between the four artworks. At first, it was believed by that the works may allude to a “scapegoat” or “the elephant in the room,” thus providing some kind of metaphorical political commentary on the state of the world.
A woman and children view a mural depicting a goat by the street artist Bansky, on August 5, 2024 in the Richmond borough of London, England. Photo: Carl Court/Getty Images.
Some suggested these could be a topical response to recent far-right riots that have erupted across the U.K. following a fatal stabbing in the northern town of Southport. Alternatively, they might refer to more global issues, like Israel’s war on Gaza or the climate crisis.
Banksy is known to be outspoken with his political views. He made headlines in June by sending an imitation migrant boat crowdsurfing through the audience during performances by punk band Idles and rapper Little Simz at Glastonbury Festival. In 2020, he funded and decorated his own rescue boat to help refugees traveling from North Africa to Europe. It was seized by Italian authorities last year and again last month, shortly after the stunt at Glastonbury.
In March, Banksy made a mural of a tree in north London that was later vandalized with white paint. The owner of the building later made the controversial decision to encase the valuable artwork in a protective barrier.
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