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It appeared in the early hours of April 29 in Waterloo Place. This area of central London, populated by military monuments and monitored by CCTV, was the spot Banksy chose to unveil his latest artwork.
A sculpture of a man in a suit, his face obscured by a flag, stepping off the plinth and into the unknown, has been widely interpreted as a critique of blind patriotism, attracting visitors in their thousands.
Although the installation was erected without permits, Westminster City Council, which is responsible for the area, told the BBC: “We’re excited to see Banksy’s latest sculpture in Westminster, making a striking addition to the city’s vibrant public art scene. While we have taken initial steps to protect the statue, at this time it will remain accessible for the public to view and enjoy.”
Existing at the intersection of street art, cultural heritage, tourism and property law, the unnamed sculpture is the latest in a long line of Banksy art that remains free for anyone to visit. While many pieces by the guerrilla street artist have been lost over the years through vandalism or theft, dozens remain, making for the perfect artistic pit stop on holiday.
Here are seven streets to add to your itinerary.
The Walled Off Hotel
Where: 182 Caritas Street, Bethlehem, Palestine
Part installation, part museum, The Walled Off Hotel reopened in December 2025, having closed in 2023 after the October 7 attacks. When it was established in March 2017, the Banksy-owned hotel instantly became an influential – if divisive – cultural monument in the city.
The former pottery workshop was intended as a temporary exhibition space before becoming a hotel promising “the worst view of any hotel in the world”. Standing beside the barrier wall separating Israel from the Palestinian territories, the property has 10 rooms, each of which looks out on to the concrete slabs of Israel’s separation wall.
Inside, Banksy artworks are on display, along with a Palestinian art gallery and museum, as well as a piano bar. Each artwork and installation is heavy with messaging to encourage reflection: the main fire in the grate, which glows beneath a pile of rubble, as though just bombed; a traditional seascape of a beach littered with life jackets discarded by refugees; and lift doors jammed half open with an “out of service” sign.
Accusations of profiting from “war tourism” are answered on the hotel’s website: “The aim is to break even and put any profits back into local projects.”
The museum and art gallery are open to all from 11am to 7.30pm, while the piano bar serves food from 11am to 10pm.
www.walledoffhotel.com
Girl on a Swing
Where: 908-910 South Broadway, Los Angeles, California, US
In this piece, Banksy highlights a lack of spaces for children to play in urban areas, reinforced by its location in a historically deprived area of Los Angeles.
The mural was created in 2010, with the Bristolian artist whitewashing a large red “Parking” sign so it simply read “Park”, before stencilling a little girl playing on a swing dangling off the letter A. The mural is covered in Plexiglas to prevent vandalism and situated in an alleyway behind a private gate, but it remains clearly visible from the street. It was credited with helping to conserve the building it is painted on, which had been earmarked for development.
The Mild, Mild West and The Girl with the Pierced Eardrum
Where: 80 Stokes Croft and Hanover Place, both in Bristol, UK
For the full Banksy experience, and to see some of his earliest works, a visit to his home city in south-west England is a must.
The street artist came to prominence in the early 1990s, and The Mild, Mild West is among his first large-scale murals. It was inspired by crackdowns on warehouse raves in Bristol at the time.
Girl with a Pierced Eardrum, over at Hanover Place, meanwhile is the artist’s riff on Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, with the earring depicted by an alarm box affixed to the wall.
The 2014 mural is close to the city’s docks, with art critics pointing to its location as a reminder that art is for all, and that anything – even an alarm box – can provide inspiration.
Visit rebelatlas.com for more Banksy artworks throughout Bristol
Red Horseman
Where: 41 Avenue de Flandre, 19th arrondissement, Paris, France
Overnight on World Refugee Day 2018, 10 artworks appeared across Paris as part of the artist’s Liberte, Egalite, Cable TV series.
Comprising murals and stencils, the pieces were a commentary on the migrant crisis across Europe, and French government policies around immigration. Several of Banksy’s signature rat stencils were spotted, paying homage to the May 1968 Paris uprisings.
Of those stencils, only one remains. The rest have been stolen or vandalised, including the famous theft of the Bataclan Door, in memory of the 90 people killed in the 2015 terror attack on the concert hall. The artwork was later found in rural Italy.
The one surviving piece, dubbed Red Horseman, has been partially covered in graffiti. A riff on Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps, the figure’s face is covered by a scarlet headscarf, which has been seen as both a comment on France’s banning of the burqa and the blinding effects of political propaganda.
Hammer Boy
Where: 233 West 79th Street, New York, US
It would be easy to walk past this Banksy piece on Manhattan’s Upper West Side as it’s considered one of the artist’s more low-key stencils. Showing a child swinging a hammer at a fire hydrant, it is sometimes referred to as Zabar’s Banksy because of its proximity to the gourmet deli nearby.
Sprayed in 2013, the stencil was part of Banksy’s month-long series, Better Out Than In. Each day for a month, he created a street art piece in a different part of New York, declaring in a trailer posted online: “In October of 2013, Banksy became artist-in-residence for the City of New York. An honour so prestigious, he made it up and awarded it to himself!”
Madonna with the Pistol
Where: Piazza Gerolomini, Naples
Of the three officially authenticated Banksy pieces on public walls in Italy, only one, Madonna con la Pistola, remains where it was originally stencilled.
The others, Banksy’s 2010 interpretation of Saint Teresa in Ecstasy was painted over shortly after it appeared. His 2019 piece, The Migrant Child, which appeared in Dorsoduro during the Venice Biennale, was also removed by authorities to protect it from water damage, before being made public this month at the Palazzo San Pantalon.
Protected by Plexiglas, Madonna with the Pistol, just off Via dei Tribunali, is thought to be the artist’s comment on the city duality: devout faith and mafia culture.
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