Elusive street artist Banksy said Thursday that a new sculpture that appeared in central London of a man striding off a plinth, with his face blinded by a billowing flag, is his work.
In a humorous video posted Thursday on his Instagram account, Banksy showed snippets of how the sculpture was put up in the dead of night. The sculpture appeared to have been erected in the early hours of Wednesday on a plinth on a traffic island in Waterloo Place, near Buckingham Palace.
Before the artist’s post, locals and tourists gathered to inspect the statue on the assumption it was Banksy’s work because his signature was scrawled at the base of the plinth.
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The statue is situated close to those of King Edward VII, who reigned between 1901 and 1910, and legendary nurse Florence Nightingale, as well as the Crimean War Memorial.
Statues are not what Banksy is primarily known for.
He is far more famous for his spray-painting on buildings, with his first creations appearing in the early 1990s in his hometown of Bristol in southwest England. He has since gone global and his paintings and installations have sold for millions of dollars at auction. His street art is often targeted by thieves and vandals.
FILE – In this file photo dated Dec, 20, 2018, an artwork by Banksy on the side of a garage is depicted, showing a child dressed for snow playing in the falling ash and smoke from a skip fire in Port Talbot, Wales. The artwork has been sold to an Essex art dealer for a “six-figure sum”, although the mural will stay in its current location for about two years, as revealed on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019.
Ben Birchall/PA FILE via AP
Banksy, who has never publicly revealed his identity, is part of a tradition of street artists who viewed the undercover act of posting their art in public as a subversive form of expression.
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