Crowd Boos as Sixth Banksy Cat Artwork Removed Hours After Unveiling

Crowds booed as a new Banksy artwork of a stretching cat on an empty, distressed advertising billboard was removed in north-west London just hours after its revelation.

The piece by the elusive street artist was dismantled by three men who claimed to be hired by a “contracting company” for safety reasons.

Located in Cricklewood, the artwork depicted a dark silhouette of a large cat with an upturned tail stretching out its body.

This artwork is the sixth to be unveiled in London this week by the Bristol-based artist. It appears to be part of a new animal-themed collection, as this follows previous reveals of a goat, elephants, monkeys, a wolf, and pelicans.

Hours after Banksy confirmed the design was his in an Instagram post, crowds gathered from across London to see the piece before the men claiming to be contractors arrived.

One of the contractors, who only gave his name as Marc, told PA news agency that they planned to pull the boarding down on Monday and replace it, but the removal was brought forward to Saturday to prevent potential harm if someone tried to “rip it down” unsafely.

He said, “We’ll store that bit (the artwork) in our yard to see if anyone collects it but if not it’ll go in a skip. I’ve been told to keep it careful in case he wants it.”

A black board was first used to cover most of the cat on the billboard at the police’s request, who aimed to stop people from walking in the road in front of traffic.

The removal effort was briefly halted by the police as officers verified that the contractors were authorized to take down the piece before allowing them to proceed.

An officer at the scene informed PA that the billboard owner plans to donate it to an art gallery.

Police had taped off the path in front of the artwork as around 50 people gathered to take pictures and later watched the artwork being removed.

Lia Colacicco, 67, a member of the NorthWestTwo Residents Association, told PA she offered to look after the Banksy for the billboard owners once it was taken down.

Another member, Ben Tansley, 71, remarked, “If it wasn’t guarded overnight somebody would take it. It’s such a shame.”

Chairwoman of the association, Carol Reeman, 64, added, “This is Cricklewood, this is our Banksy. You can’t even enjoy it for the whole day before someone wanted to take it down. You would wait a lifetime for a Banksy to come into our neighbourhood. Cricklewood’s on the map.”

A spokesperson for the local Brent Council told PA, “The billboard is privately owned and not council property.”

The cat design is the second piece this week to be removed after a painting of a wolf howling on a satellite dish was taken off the roof of a shop in Peckham, south London, less than an hour after its unveiling.

A witness told PA that he filmed the removal by three men, which led to one of them throwing his phone on a roof.

“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,” the witness said.

A Metropolitan Police statement confirmed, “We were called to reports of a stolen satellite dish containing artwork at 1.52 pm on Thursday, August 8 in Rye Lane, Peckham. There have been no arrests. Inquiries continue.”

A spokesman for Banksy told the PA news agency that the artist is neither connected to nor endorses the theft of the wolf design and that they have “no knowledge as to the dish’s current whereabouts.”

The first piece of graffiti in Banksy’s new animal-themed series, announced on Monday, is near Kew Bridge in south-west London, showing a goat with rocks falling down below it, just above where a CCTV camera is pointed.

On Tuesday, the artist added silhouettes of two elephants with their trunks stretched towards each other on the side of a building near Chelsea, west London.

This was followed by three monkeys looking as though they were swinging underneath a bridge over Brick Lane, near a vintage clothing shop in the popular east London market street, not far from Shoreditch High Street.

The fifth design, of pelicans pinching fish from a London chip shop sign in Walthamstow, east London, was unveiled on Friday.

Source: PA News Agency