Banksy has unveiled his latest artwork – a silhouette of a stretching cat on an empty, distressed advertising hoarding – the sixth in his new collection of animal-themed pieces.
The elusive street artist posted a picture of the design in Edgware Road, Cricklewood, northwest London, on Instagram on Saturday without any caption.
The creature, stretching out its body with its shoulders down and its hips and tail in the air in classic feline fashion, joins an ibex goat, elephants, monkeys, a howling wolf and pelicans, also revealed this week as Banksy pieces dotted across the city.
The goat with rocks falling down below it, just above a CCTV camera, announced on Monday near Kew Bridge in southwest London, kicked off the new animal-themed series.
Two elephants in Chelsea. Pic: PA
In nearby Chelsea, silhouettes of two elephants with their trunks stretched towards each other on the side of a building were confirmed as Banksy pieces the following day.
Three monkeys on a bridge in Brick Lane. Pic: PA
On Wednesday, the street artist revealed he had put three monkeys appearing to swing from a train bridge over Brick Lane in east London.
On Friday, there were pelicans pinching fish from a chip shop sign in Walthamstow, northeast London, a day after a wolf howling on a satellite dish was confirmed in Peckham, south London, and promptly stolen.
Banksy’s artwork of pelicans eating fish, at Bonners Fish Bar in Walthamstow. Pic: PA
Three masked men removed the dish with the wolf artwork less than an hour after it was revealed.
A witness told the PA news agency that he filmed them, prompting one of the trio to throw his phone on a roof.
The man said: “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.”
Three men stole the howling wolf from a shop roof in Peckham. Pic: PA
Pic: Reuters
No arrests have been made, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
A spokesman for Banksy, whose identity is a secret, said he had nothing to do with the theft, and had no idea where the satellite dish was.
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Banksy was recently criticised by former home secretary James Cleverly, who said the artwork he created for Glastonbury Festival was “trivialising” small boat crossings and “vile”.
The artist had said he was the person behind an inflatable boat filled with migrant dummies which had been crowdsurfed at the music festival in June, during performances by Bristol indie punk band Idles and rapper Little Simz.