Banksy’s mural depicting a judge beating a person holding a placard with their gavel was found on the wall of the Queen’s building in the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Sept. 8. The mural appeared after protests resulting from the ban of Palestine Action, leaving his work to be interpreted as a political response.
Palestine Action, established in 2020, is a U.K. based organization that protests Israel by using direct action to mess with weapon manufacturing. In July, the U.K. defined the group as a terrorist group after its members “broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and sprayed two military planes with red paint.”
U.K. Secretary of State Yvette Cooper banned the group. Anyone showing support can face a consequence of up to 14 years in prison. Approximately 900 people were arrested for protesting the terrorism charge.
On Sept. 10, the mural was scrubbed off the building. Under British heritage laws, the court’s service is “obliged to maintain its original character,” a spokesperson for the British Ministry of Justice stated in an email. The outcome of the removal sparked even more of a debate surrounding the political meaning behind the work as the shadow of the mural remains, staining the building.
Banksy was first noticed in the early 1990s. His work typically revolves around political themes as his art involves “satirically critiquing war, capitalism, hypocrisy and greed” and features “rats, apes, policemen, members of the royal family and children.”
In Aug. 2024, Banksy designed a mural in the London Zoo, depicting a gorilla lifting a shutter to let go of sea lions and birds. According to BBC, “It was the ninth Banksy to appear in as many days in London and follows images of a goat, elephants, monkeys, a wolf, pelicans, a cat, piranhas and a rhinoceros.” The zoo chose to preserve the mural using plastic to protect it from the sun.
While his identity remains anonymous, Banksy’s work can be verified as his, through his Instagram and website.
John Brandler, a gallery owner who has traded multiple of Banksy’s murals, opposed the removal of his recent mural and suggested in an interview that it could’ve been sold to raise money for charity. He said that the work could have “raised up to 5 million British pounds, or about $6.8 million.”
Banksy’s recent mural could potentially reveal his identity. The Metropolitan Police are still deciding whether his actions are enough to confront him in court.
