Advertisement

Banksy artwork removed by Tube operators because it breached 'anti-graffiti' rules

An artwork by Banksy is seen on a London underground carriage, Britain, in this undated picture obtained from social media. Instagram/Banksy /via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES - Instagram/Banksy/Reuters
An artwork by Banksy is seen on a London underground carriage, Britain, in this undated picture obtained from social media. Instagram/Banksy /via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES - Instagram/Banksy/Reuters

Banksy artwork spray-painted on the inside of a London Underground train carriage has been removed by Transport for London (TFL) as it contravened its “strict-anti graffiti” policy.

The street artist adorned a Circle Line train with messages about the spread of coronavirus, featuring his famous rats.

But TFL said that while it “appreciated the sentiment of encouraging people to wear face masks, "the work has been removed”. The transport authority invited Banksy to paint a new version “in a suitable location”

The street artist uploaded a 59-second video captioned “If you don’t mask – you don’t get” to his Instagram and YouTube pages on Tuesday.

The video begins with a laptop playing PA video footage showing London Underground being deep cleaned in May. Banksy makes his way onto a Circle Line train, carrying a yellow pump-action spray bottle and stencils in cardboard on board.

View this post on Instagram

. . If you don’t mask - you don’t get.

A post shared by Banksy (@banksy) on Jul 14, 2020 at 6:30am PDT

In a boiler suit, mask, goggles, gloves and hi-vis jacket, he is seen posing as a Transport for London worker.

As an announcement states that "the next station is Baker Street", the artist sprays blue droplets from the face of one of his famous rats, which has been stencilled on the carriage.

Banksy indicates for another masked passenger to move back, before stencilling a rat using a blue face mask as a parachute.

Another rat has a blue mask over its face, while one holds a bottle of hand sanitiser.

There are two rats, one on each of the carriage's doors, looking at each other.

The video finishes with “I get lockdown” sprayed on a station wall with the doors of the carriage closing to reveal “But I get up again”. Chumbawamba's song Tubthumping (also known as I Get Knocked Down) plays as the doors touch together.

Banksy, from Bristol, has created a number of artworks during the coronavirus lockdown. In April, he created a series of rats causing mayhem in his bathroom and posted the caption: "My wife hates it when I work from home."

The graffiti artwork by Banksy named 'Girl with a Pierced Eardrum' is seen with a protective face mask at Hannover Place on April 27, 2020 in Bristol, England. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who returned to Downing Street this week after recovering from Covid-19, said the country needed to continue its lockdown measures to avoid a second spike in infections.  - Dan Mullan/Getty Images Europe

Later that month, a large face mask was placed on his world-famous piece The Girl With The Pierced Eardrum on Bristol harbourside.

An artwork entitled Game Changer, showing an NHS nurse as a superhero toy, went on display at Southampton General Hospital in May.

In June, Banksy posted a piece inspired by Black Lives Matter with a caption, part of which read: "People of colour are being failed by the system."

The following day, a statue of slave trader Edward Colston was toppled by protesters in Bristol and thrown into the harbour during a Black Lives Matter march.

Banksy posted a sketch showing his idea for the empty plinth: retrieving the statue from the water, putting it back on the plinth with cables around its neck and life-size bronze statues of protesters pulling it down.

He finished the caption by stating: "A famous day commemorated."