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Artist Banksy’s latest artwork, depicting a rhinoceros that appears to be riding in a car, was defaced just hours after it was unveiled.
This artwork, which depicts a silhouette of a rhinoceros riding a silver Nissan Micra with a traffic cone on its bonnet, appeared on Westmore Street in Charlton, south-east London.
The piece was spray-painted by a man wearing a black mask, who had an accomplice waiting on the side of the road at around 19.45 GMT, The Guardian reported. BBC.
Eyewitness spoke to BBC “A random young man wearing a black mask brazenly walked up to the facility and defaced it with graffiti,” he said.
“The entire incident happened in less than 30 seconds before he disappeared with another male accomplice somewhere down the road.”
Banksy confirmed the artwork was his in an Instagram post — a common way he advertises his artwork — on August 12.
This was Banksy’s eighth piece of art in his animal-themed series, with previous works featuring silhouettes of goats, elephants, monkeys, a wolf, a pelican, a cat and a fish, all appearing in various locations across London.
Barriers were placed around his seventh piece – swimming piranhas painted on a London police sentry box.
A City of London Corporation spokesman said in a statement to the British news agency: “We are aware of the ongoing works at the City of London Police box on Ludgate Hill.
“We are currently working on options to preserve the artwork.”
On Thursday, one of the pieces — a wolf howling at a satellite dish — was stolen by three individuals within hours of Banksy claiming it as his.
Peckham resident Tom Kellow went to see the artwork during his lunch break when he saw the thieves.
“I was walking around 1pm and saw three men stealing it. They had a ladder. One man was on the roof and the other two were watching the ladder,” he told the Palestinian news agency.
“They saw me filming and it got a bit tense. One of them kicked me in the side and another tried to throw my phone on the roof.
“Luckily, I hit a tree and then fell again. I told a police officer in the area about it.
“It’s a great shame that we couldn’t enjoy nice things and it’s also a shame that it didn’t last more than an hour.”
A Banksy spokesperson told the Palestinian news agency that the artist had no connection to or support for the theft, and that they had “no knowledge of the current whereabouts of the plate”.
The first piece in Banksy’s new animal-themed series, unveiled on Monday, appears near Kew Bridge in southwest London, showing a goat with rocks falling below it, directly above where a surveillance camera is pointing.
Silhouettes of two elephants with their trunks extended towards each other appeared on the side of a building near Chelsea on Tuesday.
This was followed by the appearance of a trio of monkeys, which appeared to swing from under a bridge over Brick Lane, which is located near a vintage clothing store on the famous Market Street in east London, not far from Shoreditch High Street.
On Friday, a picture of pelicans stealing fish from a chip shop sign in Walthamstow, east London, emerged, while on Thursday a wolf howled.
The sixth artwork in Cricklewood, northwest London, shows the silhouette of a large cat with an upturned claw as it appears to stretch its body.