Banksy confirms SEVENTH animal-themed paintings in every week
Banksy has confirmed he is behind a new swimming fish artwork which has appeared on a police sentry box in the City of London.
It marks the seventh animal-themed piece the elusive street artist has claimed this week after he posted a photo of the artworks to his Instagram at 1pm.
The artist appears to have used translucent spray paint on the glass windows to create the design, turning the sentry box into what looks like a giant fish tank.
The artwork differs from Banksy’s previous dark silhouette images of a goat, elephants, monkeys, a wolf, pelicans and a cat which have popped up in various locations across London since Monday.
Two City of London police officers arrived today to examine the new design before taking pictures from the outside of the police box.
Banksy has confirmed the swimming fish artwork which appeared on a City of London police box was his own work
The design differs from Banksy’s usual style and has been painted with more detail and tone
A cyclist passes by the new artwork which has appeared on a City of London police box
Inside the disused police box where a school of fish has been painted
The artwork differs from Banksy’s previous dark silhouette images of a goat, elephants, monkeys, a wolf, pelicans and a cat which have popped up in various locations across London since Monday
One officer said they were asked to check out the artwork after it was picked up on CCTV cameras and that they are waiting to hear what will be done about it.
The new variation in style caused speculation if the piece was a genuine Banksy, as many fans who had travelled to London to see all of his latest pieces felt it was not not a part of his body of work.
On Saturday, the artist’s sixth piece — a stretching cat on an empty, distressed advertising billboard — was removed from its location in north-west London hours after it was revealed.
Crowds booed as the piece in Cricklewood was dismantled by three men who said they were ‘hired’ by a ‘contracting company’ to take down the billboard for safety reasons.
Hours after Banksy confirmed the design was his, crowds gathered from across London to see the piece before men, who claimed to be contractors, arrived.
A contractor, who only wanted to give his name as Marc, said they were going to take the board down on Monday and replace it, but the removal had been brought forward to Saturday in case someone ‘rips it down and leaves it unsafe’.
A black board was first used to cover the majority of the cat on the billboard at the request of the police, who wanted to stop people walking in the road in front of traffic.
An officer at the scene said the owner of the billboard has told police he will donate it to an art gallery.
Contractors taking down Banksy’s latest artwork – a silhouette of a cat on a billboard in Cricklewood
Banksy revealed his sixth artwork in as many days on his Instagram page yesterday at 1pm, but within the hour an opportunist was caught red handed trying to pry it off the wall
A man stood next to Banksy’s stretching cat artwork before it was removed
The artwork was removed, contractors say, to stop it from being stolen – after a man was filmed apparently trying to prise it from the wall
Police had to ask people to keep off of the road as they tried to take pictures of the artwork
The cat design was the second piece to be removed during the week after a painting of a howling wolf on a satellite dish was taken off the roof of a shop in Peckham, south London, less than an hour after it was unveiled.
It was removed by three men, according to a witness, who said that he filmed them, which led to one of the men throwing his phone on a roof.
‘It’s a great shame we can’t have nice things and it’s a shame it couldn’t have lasted more than an hour,’ he said.
A spokesman for Banksy said the artist is neither connected to nor endorses the theft of the wolf design and that they have ‘no knowledge as to the dish’s current whereabouts’.
Banksy posted artwork of a goat perched on top of a wall near Kew Bridge in Richmond on Monday
Another new artwork, confirmed to be by Banksy, was unveiled on a wall of a house in Chelsea, London this week
The mural sits above Bonners Fish Bar, on Northcote Road. It is based on a quiet residential street in east London
A hooded man with a mask holding the satellite dish while stood on top of the building
The artwork showing the silhouette of a wolf howling appeared on a rooftop in Peckham. It is the latest piece in a series of murals that have been unveiled this week
The first piece of graffiti in Banksy’s new animal-themed series, which was announced on Monday, is near Kew Bridge in south-west London and shows a goat with rocks falling down below it, just above where a CCTV camera is pointed.
On Tuesday, the artist added silhouettes of two elephants with their trunks stretched towards each other on the side of a building in the Chelsea area of west London.
This was followed by three monkeys looking as though they were swinging underneath a bridge over Brick Lane, near a vintage clothing shop in the popular east London market street, not far from Shoreditch High Street.
The fifth design, of pelicans pinching fish from a London chip shop sign in Walthamstow, east London, was revealed on Friday.
