A NEW suspected Banksy piece has cropped up on the side of a home – with locals terrified their rent will skyrocket.
The ginormous artwork appeared overnight on Saturday in Finsbury Park, north London, and has left residents speechless.
Street artist Banksy often refers to contemporary issues in his work, and what is understood to be his latest addition, shows a woman with a pressure hose painting a leafless tree.
Experts have said the latest graffiti scrawling symbolises how nature is struggling and as humans, we need to help improve global warming matters.
James Roebuck, 26, who lives in the flat block said he woke up to the art on Sunday morning.
He said on X/Twitter: “Banksy came overnight and now my rent will skyrocket.”
The work is currently unconfirmed, however, the creator of the BBC Radio 4 series The Banksy Story, James Peak, has said he is certain it’s the work of Banksy.
He told the BBC: “The message is clear. Nature’s struggling and it is up to us to help it grow back.
“If you go way back to the beginning of his work, he is always looking for something he can do with minimum effort to make something look really cool.”
The elusive artist confirms any artwork on his official Instagram page – which has had no activity since December last year.
This would be the first Banksy piece of 2024 – if confirmed by the anonymous Banksy.
It comes after a council was slammed for ruining another Banksy mural after part of it was replaced by a wheelie bin.
The artwork on the side of a building in Margate, Kent, originally showed a bruised 1950s housewife in an apron and washing-up gloves pushing a man into a freezer.
Banksy’s last confirmed artwork
ELUSIVE artist Banksy confirms any artwork on his Instagram page.
The last post admitting any work was his was in December 2023.
A traffic stop sign was covered with three aircraft said to resemble military drones on a South London street.
Fans of Banksy interpreted the piece as a political statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Just an hour after Banksy posted confirming it was his, the graffiti art was removed and two men were seen taking it down.
Footage showed one of them balancing on a Lime bike at the junction of Southampton Way and Commercial Way..
It is understood Banksy was not behind the removal.
Valentine’s Day Mascara, a mural weighing 3.8 tonnes, appeared on the side of a house in Margate, Kent, on Valentine’s Day, last year.
But just 24 hours after the artwork was first spotted, council workers removed the freezer – leaving behind a blank space.
A council wheelie bin later replaced the freezer.
And in 2018 Banksy ruined one of his artworks – when he caused his most famous painting to shred itself just seconds after it was sold for £1million.
Buyers at the Sotheby’s London auction house were stunned when his Girl with Balloon piece started to self-destruct.
It sold for a staggering £1,042,000 but was left hanging in strips when it went through the device inside the frame.
In September, Valentine’s Day Mascara was placed in the foyer of The Art of Banksy exhibition in Regent Street, central London, where it can be viewed for free.
The exhibition features pieces including Girl With Balloon, Flower Thrower and Rude Copper, Banksy’s Dismaland, The Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem and recent works acknowledging the ongoing war in Ukraine.
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