A new Banksy artwork that appeared on a street in south London was taken within an hour of the artist verifying the piece was a genuine installation.
The elusive artist confirmed he had created the piece – a traffic stop sign with three small aircraft said to represent military drones – in a social media post on Friday shortly after midday.
Two men were seen using tools to remove the sign in at the intersection of Southampton Way and Commercial Way in Peckham at about 12.30pm.
One witness, who wanted to be referred to only as Alex, said his Lime bike was used by the man who took down the work.
Alex, 26, said: “I opened Instagram and I saw it was posted four minutes before and I was about to go on my lunch break.
“There were about two people there when I got there. We were all sort of admiring it and taking pictures.
“This guy comes up and grabs it, we watched in awe as he bashed it.
“He put the Lime bike under the sign, stood on the Lime bike and tried to hit the sign, he hit it with his hands and it wasn’t going anywhere.
“He fell off the Lime bike at one point. He disappeared and went away and about two minutes later he reappeared with bolt cutters and just sort of tried and tried and tried while everyone was watching.
“We said, ‘what are you doing?’ but no one really knew what to do, we sort of just watched it happen.”
Another witness said: “When he started trying to knock it off a few people were shouting for him to stop but he just carried on and that’s when he realised he couldn’t get it off with just his hands and had to get some bolt cutters.”
The work, which had been installed close to a zebra crossing, was understood to be an anti-war message inspired by the conflict between Israel and Hamas terrorists in the Middle East.
Banksy, who reportedly goes by the name Robbie, sent photos of the installation to his 12.1 million Instagram followers, many of whom speculated that it would be stolen “pronto” - while a large number added “Free Palestine”.
It is not the first time his work has been removed shortly after its creation.
A 3.8-ton installation called Valentine’s Day Mascara appeared at the side of a house in Margate, Kent, on Valentine’s Day this year and 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 while throwing a man into a chest freezer.
At the time, the resident of the property, who asked not to be named, said the freezer and other items, including a broken garden chair used to create the piece, were removed “very quickly” and put into a truck.
In September the artwork was placed in the foyer of The Art of Banksy exhibition in Regent Street, central London, where it can be viewed free of charge.
The exhibition also features such pieces as Girl With Balloon, Flower Thrower and Rude Copper, Dismaland, The Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem and recent works acknowledging the ongoing war in Ukraine.
An exhibition that ran until Aug 28 at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow this year showcased 25 years of Banksy’s stencil graffiti.
Police ‘aware of the incident’
A statement from the Metropolitan Police said: “The Met is aware of an incident that occurred on Friday, 22 December, in relation to the removal of a road traffic sign in Commercial Way, Peckham.
“Our local authority partners were informed at the time and have since replaced the road sign to avoid endangering road users.
“We await any communication from the local authority as to whether they wish to report a crime.”
Southwark, the borough from which the traffic sign was taken, is among the top five crime hotspots in the capital.
Its overall crime rate last year was 108 crimes per 1,000 people – 14 per cent higher than London’s overall crime rate of 95 per 1,000 residents.
Last month, a lost 2003 BBC recording of an interview with Banksy was unearthed in which he appears to share his first name.
Nigel Wrench, the BBC reporter, asks him if he is called “Robert Banks”, and the artist replies: “It’s Robbie.”
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