A new artwork by Banksy that shows a judge hitting a protester with his gavel has appeared on the front of the Royal Courts of Justice in London – only to be swiftly covered up by officials.
Security guards were seen patrolling in front of a screen concealing the new image believed to have been unveiled by the guerilla graffiti artist on Monday morning.
But images of his latest creation just before it disappeared from view have emerged, after it was stencilled on an external wall of the Queen’s Building but swiftly hidden by large sheets of black plastic and two metal barriers..
The artwork follows almost 900 people being arrested in central London at Saturday’s demonstration supporting banned group Palestine Action, in what is thought to be Britain’s biggest ever mass arrest.
Scotland Yard condemned what police called the ‘intolerable’ abuse of its officers suffered during the rally in Parliament Square, in Westminster, attended by an estimated 1,500 people.
A total of 890 people were detained, with 857 people held made for showing support for the organisation earlier this year proscribed by the Government as a terror group.
Now Banksy appears to have offered his response to the ongoing protests which have been held in London and across the country in recent months.
One user of X, formerly Twitter, shared photos giving a glimpse of the artwork as well as attempts to hide it.
They wrote: ‘Potential BANKSY ARTWORK. Depicting a Judge attacking a protester with his Gavel. Currently being covered by the Westminster Council.’
The Daily Mail has approached Westminster County Council for comment.
Other Banksy murals which have recently appeared include one which internet sleuths pinpointed in May this year as being in the French city of Marseille.
The artwork included the words ‘I want you to be what you saw in me’ and in a second photo two people could be seen walking with their dogs past it.
A false shadow was also drawn on the pavement from a nearby bollard to give the illusion the lighthouse is a silhouette of it.
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 London.
The latest apparent Banksy mural at London’s High Court was quickly covered by a screen
Passers-by along the Strand in central London seemed to be curious about the new addition
One of Banksy’s most striking moments was in 2003 when he disguised himself as a pensioner and installed a piece in a vacant spot in the Tate Britain in London.
His artwork Girl With Balloon self-destructed in a Sotheby’s London saleroom when descending into a shredder in 2018.
That piece was then renamed Love Is In The Bin, which in 2021 sold for £18.6million – an all-time high for a Banksy artwork.
One of Banksy’s earliest works is the The Mild Mild West, painted in 1999 in Bristol’s Stokes Croft and shows a teddy bear throwing a Molotov cocktail at three riot police.
Banksy, who began his iconic street art more than 25 years ago, has sold his works for hundreds of thousands of pounds.
His identity has been shrouded in secrecy until The Mail on Sunday launched an investigation in 2008, naming Robin Gunningham as the Bristol artist. His identity nevertheless remains unconfirmed.
