An artwork created by Banksy has been removed from a south London street less than an hour after it was confirmed to be a genuine installation.
The artist confirmed the piece – a traffic stop sign covered with three aircraft said to resemble military drones – was his in a social media post on Friday shortly after midday.
Two men were seen taking down the sign at the intersection of Southampton Way and Commercial Way in Peckham at about 12.30pm. It is understood Banksy was not behind the removal.
A selection of photos had been uploaded to the artist’s Instagram page without a caption or explanation, confirming its authenticity.
The aircraft on the stop sign resembled those from Banksy’s 2017 artwork Civilian Drone Strike, which depicted a trio of drones bombing a childlike drawing of a house. It was auctioned at Art The Arms Fair and raised £205,000 for Reprieve and Campaign Against Arms Trade.
Banksy has installed some other pieces this year, including Valentine’s Day Mascara, a mural weighing 3.8 tonnes, which appeared on the side of a house in Margate, Kent, on Valentine’s Day. The mural depicted a 1950s housewife with a swollen eye and missing tooth, wearing an apron and yellow washing-up gloves, and throwing a man into a chest freezer.
In September, it was placed in the foyer of the Art of Banksy exhibition in Regent Street, central London, where it can be viewed for free.
The exhibition features pieces including Girl With Balloon, Flower Thrower and Rude Copper and also focuses on Banksy’s Dismaland, the Walled Off hotel in Bethlehem and recent works acknowledging the war in Ukraine.
An exhibition also opened at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art for a limited run and showcased 25 years of Banksy’s stencil graffiti.
Cut & Run included authentic artefacts, ephemera and the artist’s toilet, as well as a model that explained how Bansky shredded Girl With Balloon during an auction at Sotheby’s in London in 2018.
In August, a message on Cutandrun.co.uk said organisers “want to take this show on the road but have no idea where to go to next”.
The artist often refers to contemporary issues and in 2020 included messages about the coronavirus pandemic in his work.
