Is Banksy art or graffiti? Have your say

James Hockaday

Yahoo UK's poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week's hot topics. After 72 hours the poll closes and, each Friday, we'll publish and analyse the results, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers.

A security guard stands beside an artwork by street artist Banksy, the ninth to released in nine days, depicting a gorilla releasing animals, on the front of a shutter outside London zoo, on August 13, 2024. The artist confirmed the work to be theirs after posting an image of it on the social media app Instagram.gor (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY MENTION OF THE ARTIST UPON PUBLICATION - TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
A security guard at London Zoo stands besides Banksy's ninth work to be released in nine days. (Getty Images) (ADRIAN DENNIS via Getty Images)

Banksy has unveiled his ninth artwork in the capital in nine days – confirming that a new design sprayed onto a shutter at London Zoo is his own.

The new piece, located by the zoo's entrance, shows a gorilla lifting it up allowing a number of birds to escape, while the eyes of other animals can be seen lurking in the darkness.

Banksy confirmed the work as his own in his usual way – by sharing it on his Instagram account with no further explanation.

However, his latest series of pieces all do appear to follow a theme of animals scattered around London outside of their natural habitat.

Other pieces by the elusive street artist include piranhas on a police sentry box, a goat perched on top of a wall and a howling wolf painted on a satellite dish.

Banksy's eighth work, a rhino mounting a silver Nissan Micra with a traffic cone on its bonnet in Charlton’s Westmoor Street, was defaced by a man wearing a black balaclava just hours after it went up.

A worker on a ladder starts setting up a protective cover over the now defaced artwork unveiled by Banksy, depicting a rhinoceros which looked as though it was climbing on top of a car, which has since been removed. This is the eighth artwork in his animal-themed collection, on Westmoor Street in Charlton, south east London. Picture date: Tuesday August 13, 2024. (Photo by Lucy North/PA Images via Getty Images)
A worker sets up a protective cover over the now defaced artwork unveiled by Banksy on Westmoor Street in Charlton. (Getty Images) (Lucy North - PA Images via Getty Images)

A video obtained by BBC News shows a man walking up to the artwork and spray painting it, leaving a white tag on it. A nearby crowd could be heard saying, "don't do that" and "why did you do that? Why did you do it?"

Whether or not Banksy's work should be considered art is subjective, but the crowd's reaction shows how much it means to some people.

The City of London Corporation's decision to move Banksy's piranha police sentry box from near the Old Bailey to a safe location to preserve it suggests the local authority also sees the cultural value of his work.

However, City of London Police still said it was investigating "criminal damage", suggesting that no matter how popular Banksy's artwork might be, the law is still the law.

But what do you think? Why does Banksy's artwork valued more, even by some local authorities, compared to those of other graffiti artists?

Voting on this poll is now closed.

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