One of the nine murals put up by Banksy in London in as many days has been defaced.
An image of a rhino appearing to mount a clapped-out Nissan Micra with a traffic cone on its bonnet appeared in south-east London on Monday and was confirmed as a Bansky on the artist’s Instagram account.
Later in the evening a man in a balaclava with a can of white paint was filmed spraying a tag on it while a crowd shouted: “Don’t do that.”
A ninth animal work, outside London zoo, was confirmed as a Banksy on Tuesday morning. It shows a gorilla appearing to lift up the shutter on which it is painted, letting birds and a seal escape, while the eyes of other animals lurking in the darkness.
The tagged graffiti on the rhino appears to be a dollar sign and a V. Banksy is not universally popular with street artists because of his mainstream success and his use of stencils rather than free painting.
One witness, Devan Vadukul, told the BBC a “random youth” had “brazenly walked up and defaced the installation with a graffiti tag”.
Vadukul said: “The whole incident took place within less than 30 seconds before he disappeared with another male accomplice further down the road.”
Banksy has uploaded images of animals stencilled in London on nine consecutive days.
His first piece, on 5 August, was a goat perched on a wall. It was followed by silhouettes of elephants, monkeys, a wolf, pelicans and a cat.
On Sunday Banksy confirmed he was behind the addition of a school of piranhas to a police sentry box in the City of London.
Barriers were put around the box and the City of London Corporation said the artwork had been removed to a “safe location”.
A spokesperson for the corporation said: “We have moved the artwork to Guildhall Yard to ensure it is properly protected and open for the public to view safely. A permanent home for the piece will be decided in due course.”