Dish It Out: New Banksy Street Art Quickly Removed by Masked Group
A satellite dish depicting a wolf howling was taken down from a London roof in broad daylight, providing further publicity for the work and artist.
By Gabe Herman · August 9, 2024
Disclaimer: While this article is painted with facts, the author has taken some artistic license with satire.
This past week has seen several new works of street art from the popular and anonymous artist Banksy, who confirmed them by posting photos on Instagram. However, there was an incident after the Thursday, August 8th piece was unveiled - a group of masked men quickly removed the artwork and made off with it, as a witness captured it on video. Such are the potential perils of trying to let people see free art out in public.
Video showed three masked men working together to bring the satellite dish down from a roof using a ladder, and then hauling it away down a sidewalk. Police said they are investigating. The alleged theft - which is especially “alleged” because when it comes to Banksy you can never be sure what is really going on - happened in the Peckham area of southeast London. Banksy’s press team told BBC News it was their belief that the artwork had been stolen.
Four other works of Banksy street art were unveiled in London this week, each featuring different animals. There were three monkeys swinging on a bridge in east London; two elephants reaching out across windows in Chelsea; a goat high up on a wall in Richmond, southwest London; and on Friday, the day after the wolf satellite was taken, two silhouetted pelicans eating fish just above a fish and chips shop in northeast London.
Besides the wolf artwork, the other four pieces are on the sides of buildings or on a train bridge, which are harder to remove than a satellite dish.
Over the years, there have been previous incidents of Banksy street art being stolen. Banksy artworks can easily sell for upwards of 6-figure dollar amounts, though a stolen piece might be trickier to sell. There is also a rather extensive Wikipedia page entitled, “List of works by Banksy that have been damaged or destroyed.”
“I like these artworks,” said a local man standing on a street corner somewhere. “I’m a fan of Banksy. I like that he’s anonymous because at dinner parties I like to say that I’m actually Banksy, and it usually gets a good laugh from people. I’d say it’s my go-to joke. So I hope he remains anonymous so that I can keep telling that great joke.”
“People might be mad about the stolen art, but what about the art that goes into stealing public artworks?” said a guy wearing a navy blue suit and a bright green baseball hat who apparently steals street art. “I’ve been working on my craft for years and I consider myself an artist. I feel I should get some credit for my thieving exploits. It’s not as easy as it looks, it takes daring and creativity. I’d like to see you give it a try.”
A sociologist and art historian commented, “It could be that the group removing the satellite dish was trying to make a statement about the transient nature of street art, and by extension the transient nature of society and our lives in this world.” She added, “But it’s more likely that they’re just hoping to get some money out of it.”