A new mural attributed to the anonymous street artist Banksy on the side of the Royal Courts of Justice in central London was covered and later scrubbed away by court authorities, who said the 143-year-old listed building must be preserved in its original condition.
The artwork, posted by Banksy on his Instagram account with the caption “Royal Courts Of Justice. London.,” showed a judge in a traditional white wig and black robe striking a protester with a gavel while the protester’s sign bore the signature blood spatters associated with the artist. The mural appeared over the weekend and was swiftly cordoned off by law enforcement before being removed by a masked worker.
HM Courts and Tribunals Service, which manages the complex, said in a statement that the building is listed and that it is “obliged to maintain its original character,” explaining the decision to remove the unauthorized painting. The mural was widely read as commentary on a recently passed law restricting support for the group Palestine Action, a measure that has drawn criticism from rights groups and legal experts on free-speech grounds. Authorities arrested about 900 people at a protest in London two days before the mural appeared.
Banksy, a pseudonymous England-based artist, has previously used street works to highlight the Palestinian cause, creating pieces in the West Bank and Gaza and owning a hotel in Bethlehem that overlooks the Israeli separation wall. He has not explicitly linked the Royal Courts mural to the recent protests in public statements accompanying the Instagram post.
The removal at the Royal Courts is the latest instance in a long pattern of Banksy works being lost, altered or taken. Because most of the artist’s murals are made without permission, they are exposed to municipal removal, vandalism, theft and accidental destruction.
A three-story Banksy mural in Dover, unveiled in 2017 and depicting a worker chipping away at an EU flag star, was whitewashed in 2019 and later lost when the building on which it was painted was demolished in November 2023. At the time of the demolition, that mural was valued at roughly $1.2 million.
Local authorities have ordered removals on aesthetic or legal grounds. In 2008, Westminster City Council ordered the removal of Banksy’s 2007 work “One Nation Under CCTV,” arguing it was created without permission and might encourage unauthorized graffiti. Council officials framed the removal as an effort to deter further illegal painting.
The high market value of Banksy works has also made them targets for theft. In December 2023, a Banksy image sprayed onto a traffic sign in southeast London showing three drones was stolen within an hour of being authenticated; photographs showed two men cutting the sign free with bolt cutters. The piece was later estimated to be worth about $500,000. In another incident last year, masked individuals removed a painting of a howling wolf that had been spray-painted on a satellite dish atop a building in south London just hours after it appeared.
Overzealous or mistaken removals by municipal workers have also cost the public several Banksy pieces. In 2009, Hackney Council workers in London mistakenly began painting over a Banksy image depicting the British royal family on the side of a building; the building’s owner intervened before the mural was completely lost. Builders in Kent demolished a structure in 2023 without realizing a Banksy work on its wall would be destroyed.
Banksy’s mode of working—ephemeral, often political and frequently unauthorized—has helped build the artist’s global profile but also ensures that many pieces have fragile longevities. Efforts to preserve, restore or transfer street works generate legal, ethical and practical questions about ownership, conservation and the public nature of graffiti.
Some owners and local authorities have sought to protect or remove and sell pieces, while others insist on preserving the historic character of listed buildings. When works are removed, either by authorities asserting preservation duties or by opportunists seeking profit, the artworks are often lost to the public.
The Royal Courts removal underscores the tensions that arise when unsanctioned street art appears on protected structures. In many cases, the works are visible only briefly before being altered or erased, leaving behind photographs, eyewitness accounts and, sometimes, legal disputes about what should have been saved. Banksy’s latest piece will now join a long list of the artist’s works that were created in public view and then lost to time, policy or profit.