The elusive street artist has not yet claimed the piece, but if he does it would be his seventh artwork to be unveiled this week in various locations across the capital. The aquarium-like design on the police box differs from Banksy’s previous silhouette artworks in that the school of fish has been painted with more detail and tone. The artist has revealed a new animal artwork each day this week – including a goat, elephants, monkeys, a wolf, pelicans and a cat – by posting a photo of the piece to Instagram at 1pm.
On Saturday, the artist’s sixth piece – a stretching cat on an empty, distressed advertising billboard – was removed from its location in north-west London hours after it was revealed. Crowds booed as the piece in Cricklewood was dismantled by three men who said they were “hired” by a “contracting company” to take down the billboard for safety reasons. Hours after Banksy confirmed the design was his, crowds gathered from across London to see the piece before men, who claimed to be contractors, arrived.
A contractor, who only wanted to give his name as Marc, told the PA news agency they were going to take the board down on Monday and replace it, but the removal had been brought forward to Saturday in case someone “rips it down and leaves it unsafe”. A black board was first used to cover the majority of the cat on the billboard at the request of the police, who wanted to stop people walking in the road in front of traffic. An officer at the sc.