Crowds booed as a new Banksy artwork of a stretching cat on an empty, distressed advertising billboard was removed in north-west London hours after it was revealed.
The piece by the elusive street artist was dismantled by three men who said they were “hired” by a “contracting company” to take down the billboard for safety reasons.
Located in Cricklewood, the artwork depicted a dark silhouette of a large cat with an upturned tail stretching out its body.
The artwork is the sixth to be unveiled in London by the Bristol-based artist this week, in what appears to be a new animal-themed collection, after he previously revealed a goat, elephants, monkeys, a wolf and pelicans.
Hours after Banksy confirmed the design was his in an Instagram post, crowds gathered from across London to see the piece before men, who claimed to be contractors, arrived.
A contractor, who only wanted to give his name as Marc, told the PA news agency that they were going to pull the boarding down on Monday and replace it, but the removal had been brought forward to Saturday in case someone “rips it down and leaves it unsafe”.
He said: “We’ll store that bit (the artwork) in our yard to see if anyone collects it but if not it’ll go in a skip.
“I’ve been told to keep it careful in case he wants it.”
A black board was first used to cover the majority of the cat on the billboard at the request of the police, who wanted to stop people walking in the road in front of traffic.
The removal effort was briefly paused by the police as officers checked the contractors were approved to take the piece down before they were allowed to continue on with the work.
An officer at the scene told PA that the owner of the billboard has told police he will donate it to an art gallery.
Police had taped off the path in front of the artwork as around 50 people gathered to take pictures and later watched the artwork being removed.
A statement from the Metropolitan Police said: “Police were called to Edgware Road, NW2, shortly after 16.30hrs on Saturday, 10 August to reports of a large crowd near a Banksy artwork on a billboard.
“Contractors, on behalf of the owner of the billboard, told officers they had been authorised to remove the board as it was unsafe.
“Local Authority representatives attended the site, confirmed identities and authority to remove the board, and the removal then took place.”
Lia Colacicco, 67, a member of the NorthWestTwo Residents Association, told PA she offered to look after the Banksy for the owners of the billboard once it was taken down.
Fellow member Ben Tansley, 71, said: “If it wasn’t guarded overnight somebody would take it. It’s such a shame.”
Chairwoman of the association, Carol Reeman, 64, added: “This is Cricklewood, this is our Banksy. You can’t even enjoy it for the whole day before someone wanted to take it down.
“You would wait for a lifetime for a Banksy to come into our neighbourhood. Cricklewood’s on the map.”
A spokesperson for the local Brent Council told PA: “The billboard is privately owned and not council property.”
The cat design is the second piece this week to be removed after a painting of a wolf howling on a satellite dish was taken off the roof of a shop in Peckham, south London, less than an hour after it was unveiled.
It was removed by three men, according to a witness, who told PA that he filmed them, which led to one of the men throwing his phone on a roof.
“It’s a great shame we can’t have nice things and it’s a shame it couldn’t have lasted more than an hour,” he said.
A statement from the Metropolitan Police said: “We were called to reports of a stolen satellite dish containing artwork at 1.52pm on Thursday August 8 in Rye Lane, Peckham. There have been no arrests. Inquiries continue.”
A spokesman for Banksy told the PA news agency that the artist is neither connected to nor endorses the theft of the wolf design and that they have “no knowledge as to the dish’s current whereabouts”.
The first piece of graffiti in Banksy’s new animal-themed series, which was announced on Monday, is near Kew Bridge in south-west London and shows a goat with rocks falling down below it, just above where a CCTV camera is pointed.
On Tuesday the artist added silhouettes of two elephants with their trunks stretched towards each other on the side of a building near Chelsea, west London.
This was followed by three monkeys looking as though they were swinging underneath a bridge over Brick Lane, near a vintage clothing shop in the popular east London market street, not far from Shoreditch High Street.
The fifth design, of pelicans pinching fish from a London chip shop sign in Walthamstow, east London, was revealed on Friday.
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