A suspected new Banksy piece has popped up overnight in Central London.
Coming after several of his works popped up across London last summer, the piece contains familiar motifs for the elusive artist, and shows a girl in black and white clutching six gold balloons. It was found sprayed onto a boarded-up public toilet in Farringdon’s Clerkenwell Green.
A report from The Metro notes a sign was placed next to the display, saying it was “forbidden” to remove or tamper with it. “Verification of authenticity is currently being sought via the approximate channel, the Pest Control Office website, as it is correct procedure,” it reads.
However, Banksy has yet to claim the work on his Instagram, as he has done with previous pieces, such as his London police box piece (as seen above), so it remains unclear whether the work is legitimate.
Fresh new ‘Banksy’ artwork appears overnight in London park..Clerkenwell Green in Farringdon. pic.twitter.com/f28AnsQLqw
— Lily Ayres (@uriko53) April 4, 2025
It follows the anonymous artist making headlines in recent months, with his ‘Crude Oil (Vettriano)’ painting – once owned by Blink 182‘s Mark Hoppus – selling for £4.3million at auction in March.
Even more recently, footage of Banksy’s team in the process of creating an artwork was captured, caught on camera by a local Margate resident following the 2023 installation of ‘Valentines Day Mascara’.
It shows a team of artists interacting with passers-by, with the video having been taken by the mother of a child who was being shown how to fly a drone by one of the artists.
The woman did not realise the significance of what she was filming, but the video has now been revealed as part of the second season of BBC Radio 4’s The Banksy Story: When Banksy Comes To Town, which seeks to offer a rare insight into the elusive street artist – audio of The Banksy Story is available now, while footage of his team at work will be available later today (April 6).
Banksy’s identity remains a closely guarded secret, with speculation having been rife ever since he first rose to prominence in the early 2000s, with Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja and Gorillaz’ Jamie Hewlett often being put in the frame.
However, in 2023, a long-lost interview that the artist did with the BBC seemed to uncover new information.
A recording emerged of an interview that Banksy conducted in 2003, but which was never released. In it, he appeared to confirm that his first name is Robbie.
Broadcast for the first time on The Banksy Story, the original interview saw the artist speaking with the former BBC arts correspondent Nigel Wrench at the time of his ‘Turf War’ show.
At the time of the interview, a recent article in The Independent had printed his name as Robert Banks, and Wrench asked whether he could use his real name in the interview. Asking to confirm whether it was Robert Banks, Banksy can be heard saying, “It’s Robbie”.
It appeared last year that he might have been forced to reveal his name in court in the event that a legal tussle over the authenticity of one of his prints escalated any further.
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