New Banksy Murals Appeared in London Every Day This Week. What Do They Mean?

For five days in a row, the anonymous street artist Banksy has revealed a new animal mural in London. A goat appeared on Monday, followed by two elephants on Tuesday, three monkeys on Wednesday, a wolf on Thursday and two pelicans on Friday.

The fifth mural popped up overnight on the wall above Bonners Fish Bar in Walthamstow, a town in northeast London, on August 9. It features one pelican that appears to be plucking a fish from Bonners’ sign, while another catches a fish leaping through the air.

“So proud to have a @banksy on the side of our shop!” wrote the fish bar in an Instagram post. “Thank you for choosing us, and Walthamstow, to showcase your talent.”

Banksy claimed credit for each image with an Instagram post, none of which included captions or any additional information. As such, art sleuths have been offering their own interpretations of the works, which some are calling Banksy’s “zoo series.”

The artist “is creating a menagerie of animals, a bestiary of beasts, which will keep stimulating attention and raising the stakes,” Paul Gough, editor of Banksy: The Bristol Legacy, told the Washington Post’s Adela Suliman on August 8. “It’s Banksy’s marketing at its best and most impactive, building an enormous air of expectation.”

Banksy is known for using his work to make political statements. Onlookers have linked the string of murals to a variety of global issues, including animal activism, environmentalism, war and British politics. However, as each new piece appeared, connecting the series with any particular cause got trickier.

“They’re very basic in lots of ways,” Isobel Harbison, an art historian at Goldsmiths, University of London, tells the Guardian’s Nadia Khomami. “There might be something meaningful about their common silhouette style—not two-tone, as usual—and the fact of their plurality. … But Banksy’s views are usually quite self-evident.”

Banksy is one of the most famous street artists of all time. His most expensive work, Love Is in the Bin, sold for an impressive $25.4 million in 2021. Already, thieves have taken one of the new animal murals, perhaps hoping to make a profit.

The artwork—a howling wolf painted onto a satellite dish—was reportedly stolen soon after it was placed atop a building in south London on August 8. One witness filmed the theft before reporting it to the police.

“They had a ladder. There was one guy on the roof, and the other two were watching the ladder,” Tom Kellow, the witness, tells BBC News’ Liz Jackson and Adriana Elgueta. “It’s a great shame we can’t have nice things, and it’s a shame it couldn’t have lasted more than an hour.”

According to Google Maps, the satellite dish did not appear to be on the building last year, though it’s unclear when it was added.

Whether the artist will create more murals—or release additional information about the existing works—remains to be seen. Gough, however, is predicting a big reveal.

“It’s highly unusual in Banksy’s art to trail a series of artworks in this way,” he told the Washington Post. “I think this is leading to something quite substantial.”

Julia Binswanger | READ MORE

Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ, Chicago magazine, Rebellious magazine and PC magazine.