Onlookers ‘watched in awe’
Ali said: “Of course Banksy picked Peckham - it’s already on the map when it comes to art and is a hotbed for creativity.
“It should not have been removed, and we’d like it back so everyone in the community can enjoy Banksy’s brilliant work. We have reported the removal of our sign to the police to help get it back.”
A man who witnessed the removal of the artwork said onlookers “watched in awe” as a man “bashed it with his hands”.
The witness, who wanted to be referred to only as Alex, said the man tried to hit the artwork with his hands before leaving and returning with bolt=cutters.
Alex, 26, added: “We said, ‘What are you doing?’ but no one really knew what to do, we sort of just watched it happen. We were all a bit bemused - there was some honking of car horns. He ripped it off, ran across the road and ran away.
“He said nothing. He didn’t seem to care that much about the art itself.”
Photos from the scene show a man wearing a red and black jacket using a Lime bike to prop himself up, with one foot placed on the saddle and the other on the handlebars, while the bike is held steady by another man.
Margate mural dismantled
A further image shows the man in red and black running in front of a white van with the stop sign after successfully managing to remove it.
It is understood Banksy is not behind the removal, and this is not the first time the artist’s work has been removed shortly after its installation.
A mural weighing 3.8 tonnes called Valentine’s Day Mascara appeared on the side of a house in Margate, Kent on Valentine’s Day this year and was dismantled some hours later after Banksy shared a series of photos of it online.
The mural depicted a 1950s-era housewife with a swollen eye and missing tooth, wearing an apron and yellow washing-up gloves, throwing a man into a chest freezer.
In September, the mural was placed in the foyer of The Art Of Banksy exhibition in Regent Street.
The free exhibition features pieces including Girl With Balloon, Flower Thrower and Rude Copper, and also focuses on Banksy’s Dismaland, the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem and recent works acknowledging the ongoing war in Ukraine.
