British street artist Banksy unveils latest mural in London
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A person taking a photograph of a work of art by street artist Banksy in Bayswater, west London, on Dec 22.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
- Banksy unveiled a black and white mural in Bayswater, London, depicting two children looking up. An identical artwork appeared in Tottenham Court Road.
- The Bayswater mural features a skip and crane, with Banksy posting the image on Instagram, fueling speculation about the second artwork.
- In September, Banksy criticised the UK's crackdown on protesters with artwork outside the Royal Courts of Justice, supporting free speech.
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LONDON – British street artist Banksy unveiled his latest work in central London on Dec 22 amid speculation over an identical second work which has appeared elsewhere in the city.
The black-and-white mural painted on the side of an old building in Bayswater shows two people, probably children, in winter hats and wellington boots, lying down, looking up and pointing to the sky.
Banksy, whose real identity has not been revealed, posted an image of the work on his official Instagram account on Dec 22.
A wide-angle photo of the artwork at Queen’s Mews, in Bayswater, makes it look as if the people in the image are lying on top of a corrugated-iron roof garage, part-way up a two-storey building.
In the photo on Banksy’s Instagram post, there is an overflowing skip in an alleyway next to the garage, spilling its rubbish onto the pavement.
Above the building towers a crane, with a red light visible at night at the top – perhaps an allusion to a Christmas tree.
An almost identical artwork appeared a few miles away under the multi-storey Centre Point building in Tottenham Court Road. In it, the two children can be seen looking up at the London skyscraper.
Pedestrians walking past a mural on the side of a wall – alleged by the local media to have been created by street artist Banksy – in the Tottenham Court Road area of central London.
PHOTO: AFP
Both images attracted interest from passers-by and generated much speculation on social media throughout Dec 22 about whether Banksy was behind them.
But by 4pm, only the Queens Mews artwork had been posted on Banksy’s social media.
In September, the artist took aim at the UK’s crackdown on protesters with a new work outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, adding fuel to a free-speech row roiling the country.
The artist posted an image of the work, which features a judge wielding a gavel over a protester on the ground holding a blood-splattered placard, on his Instagram page.
The work was later covered by black plastic sheets and two metal barriers.
Banksy’s mural outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London was later covered up.
PHOTO: REUTERS
It appeared after hundreds of people were arrested at a demonstration against a ban on the activist group Palestine Action.
In May 2025, one of Banksy’s paintings, which reimagines Jack Vettriano’s famous The Singing Butler, sold for nearly £4.3 million (S$7.5 million) at an auction in London, auction house Sotheby’s said. AFP
