Stenciled paintings bearing the trademarks of Banksy have appeared in nearly a half dozen English coastal towns, with potential new works by the street-art legend popping up in Lowestoft, Gorleston, Oulton Broad, Cromer, and Great Yarmouth.
“Banksy has clearly been enjoying an East Anglian staycation: these are very sophisticated stencils showing an artist at the top of his game,” Paul Gough, principal and vice chancellor of Arts University Bournemouth, told the BBC.
The Gorleston artwork, on a wall behind a bench, depicts an arcade crane game, seemingly poised to pluck pedestrians from their seats.
In Great Yarmouth, a couple dancing to the sounds of an accordion player are perched atop a bus shelter. Banksy is also suspected of adding a new cottage to the town’s Merrivale Model Village, with a rat stencil—a staple image in the artist’s repertoire—and the words “Go Big or Go Home.” It’s the only one of the new artworks that appears to be signed, with the name “Banksy” scrawled in red paint on the tiny home.
Banksy appears to have added his own graffiti-covered house to Merrivale Model Village in Great Yarmouth, England. Photo courtesy of Merrivale Model Village.
Cromer’s potential Banksy has a political edge, with a hermit crab holding up a sign “luxury rentals only” to would-be occupants, as reported by the North Norfolk News.
One piece in Lowestoft is of a child with a shovel, appearing to have built a sandcastle amid dug up pavement stones. In a second, a seagull is pouncing on the contents of a dumpster.
A painting in nearby Oulton Broad, in the town’s Nicholas Everitt Park, shows three children playing in a boat, with the message, “We’re all in the same boat.” The prow of a boat, made from scrap metal and attached to the wall, was temporarily removed by the Oulton Broad Parish Council due to forecasts for heavy rain and its location in front of a storm drain.
The anonymous British artist has yet to claim any of the work publicly, but Banksy’s illicit graffiti has been known to attract tourists, as well as intense interest from art collectors.
He set an auction record earlier this year with the £16.8 million ($23.2 million) sale of Game Changer (2020), an oil painting of a child playing with a doll while his superhero action figures sit forgotten. (The money all went to University Hospital Southampton.)
As of press time, Banksy representatives had not responded to inquiries from Artnet News.
See more photos of the new works below.
A graffiti artwork of a couple dancing to an accordion player in Great Yarmouth is one of several possible new Banksy works on the East coast of England. Photo by Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images.
This amusement arcade crane, suspected to be a new work by Banksy, was painted on a wall in Gorleston-on-Sea on the East coast of England. Photo by Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images.
A possible new Banksy on a bridge in Everitt Park in Lowestoft on the East coast of England on August 8, 2021. Photo by Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images.
Banksy appears to have added his own graffiti-covered house to Merrivale Model Village in Great Yarmouth, England. Photo courtesy of Merrivale Model Village.
Banksy appears to have added his own graffiti-covered house to Merrivale Model Village in Great Yarmouth, England. Photo courtesy of Merrivale Model Village.