Banksy Artwork Suffering... This Time 'Chik Chik' Spray on Rhinoceros Mural

8th London Animal Series... Masked Man Vandalizes
Wolf-Painted Satellite Antenna Stolen

The "faceless artist" Banksy, who has been painting animal murals across London, UK, has once again had one of his works vandalized.

On the 12th (local time), BBC reported that Banksy's newly unveiled rhinoceros mural was defaced on a wall on Charlton Street in southeast London. According to the report, a man wearing a black mask spray-painted graffiti on the rhinoceros mural. The man slowly approached the mural and sprayed it, and despite the crowd booing, he calmly walked away from the scene.

Stephanie Lester, who witnessed the scene, said, "When the crowd booed, the man moved away from them." Another witness, Devan Badukul, said, "The masked man shamelessly approached the artwork and wrote 'Gravity'."

Banksy's artwork.
[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

The piece is the eighth in the "London Animal Mural Series," depicting a rhinoceros climbing onto an abandoned car. Banksy posted the new work on Instagram, stating that ownership belongs to the other party.

Since the 5th, Banksy has been unveiling animal murals across London. Goats, elephants, monkeys, wolves, pelicans, and cats have appeared in sequence, with the rhinoceros being the eighth. However, among these, the mural of a wolf on a satellite antenna was stolen shortly after its unveiling by masked assailants, causing controversy.

A man vandalizing a rhinoceros mural. [Image source=BBC]

Meanwhile, the faceless artist Banksy has gained fame by leaving murals with messages around the world. He usually announces that the murals are his works by posting photos of them on social media. Notably, in 2018, Banksy drew attention when his artwork "Girl with Balloon" was auctioned at Sotheby's in the UK for ?1.04 million (about 1.6 billion KRW) and immediately after the sale, a remote-controlled shredder hidden in the frame shredded half of the painting to pieces.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.