Banksy is thought to have emerged again for the second time in two days – this time with artwork featuring a reindeer adorned with Christmas lights.
The elusive street artist is believed to be behind a stencil of the animal which appeared on a wall of a disused tennis court changing rooms in London Fields, Hackney, overnight.
Its antlers are tangled in multi-coloured fairy lights hanging from a metal bar attached to the blue wall.
The artist is yet to confirm that the reindeer is his, but this piece is reminiscent of his style.
The work appeared 24 hours after two other pieces – confirmed Banksy’s – of children, in Bayswater and near the Centre Point building in Central London.
The identical images show two children lying on the ground dressed in wellington boots, coats and winter bobble hats, one of them pointing upwards towards the sky.
Experts say the Bayswater location was chosen to make a point about child homelessness.
The artist announced his new work by posting an image to his social media on Monday afternoon.
A new artwork by Banksy shows a reindeer adorned with Christmas lights on a wall of a disused tennis court changing rooms in London Fields, Hackney
The work appeared 24 hours after two other pieces- confirmed Banksy’s – of children, in Bayswater and near the Centre Point building in Central London
In September, a Banksy mural showing a protester on the floor holding a blood-spattered placard while a judge hit him with a gavel appeared on the front of the Royal Courts of Justice building.
It was swiftly covered up by officials, with security guards seen patrolling in front of a screen concealing the artwork.
The artwork followed almost 900 people being arrested in central London at a demonstration supporting banned group Palestine Action, in what was thought to be Britain’s biggest ever mass arrest.
Banksy has a long association with releasing work around Christmas.
For the past eight years, Banksy has made a habit of appearing in the run-up to Christmas, unveiling works that deliver pointed social commentary.
His Santa’s Ghetto project ran intermittently between 2002 and 2007 as a temporary, Christmas-only exhibition staged in improvised locations across London, before culminating in Bethlehem.
Among the works were a depiction of Jesus Christ on the cross clutching shopping bags, and an image of a young boy attempting to catch snowflakes that were, in fact, ashes from a burning bin.
His other murals in London have included nine animal-themed pictures that appeared in nine different locations across the capital in August last year.
His final piece depicted a gorilla lifting the shutters of London Zoo to release a sea lion and birds, while other wildlife appear to look out from the inside.
It came after stencils of a goat, elephants, monkeys, a wolf, pelicans, a cat, piranhas and a rhinoceros were drawn across the city.
