New Banksy mural of a judge beating a protester to be removed from
outside London court
[September 09, 2025]
By LYDIA DOYE
LONDON (AP) — A new mural by elusive street artist Banksy showing a
judge beating an unarmed protester with a gavel will be removed from a
wall outside one of London's most iconic courts, authorities said
Monday.
The mural appeared Monday and depicts a protester lying on the ground
holding a blood-splattered placard while a judge in a traditional wig
and black gown beats him with a gavel. Banksy posted a photo of the work
on Instagram, his usual method of claiming a work as authentic. It was
captioned “Royal Courts Of Justice. London.”
Security officials outside the courthouse covered the artwork Monday
with sheets of black plastic and two metal barriers, and it was being
guarded by two officers and a security camera.
Because the Victorian gothic revival style building is 143 years old,
the mural will be removed with consideration for its historical
significance, according to HM Courts and Tribunals.
“The Royal Courts of Justice is a listed building and HMCTS are obliged
to maintain its original character,” it said in a statement. Listed
buildings are considered the country’s most significant historic
buildings and sites and are protected by law.
While the artwork doesn't refer to a particular cause or incident,
activists saw it as a reference to the U.K. government's ban on the
group Palestine Action. On Saturday almost 900 people were arrested at a
London protest challenging the ban.
Defend Our Juries, the group that organized the protest, said in a
statement that the mural “powerfully depicts the brutality unleashed” by
the government ban.
“When the law is used as a tool to crush civil liberties, it does not
extinguish dissent, it strengthens it,” the statement said.
The courts have weighed in on the Palestine Action case, with judges
initially rejecting the organization’s request to appeal its ban. A High
Court court judge then allowed the appeal to go forward, though the
government is now challenging that decision.
Banksy began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England,
and has become one of the world’s best-known artists. His paintings and
installations sell for millions of dollars at auction and have drawn
thieves and vandals.
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Undated photo released by Banksy of the new artwork by the artist
which portrays a judge beating a protester with a gavel at the Royal
Courts of Justice in London. (Banksy via AP)
 Banksy’s work often comments on
political issues, with many of his pieces criticizing government
policy on migration and war.
At the Glastonbury Festival last year, an inflatable raft holding
dummies of migrants in life jackets was unveiled during a band’s
headline set. Banksy appeared to claim the stunt, which was thought
to symbolize small boat crossings of migrants in the English
Channel, in a post on Instagram.
The artist has also taken his message on migration to Europe.
In 2019, “The Migrant Child,” depicting a shipwrecked child holding
a pink smoke bomb and wearing a life jacket, was unveiled in Venice,
Italy. In 2018, a number of works including one near a former center
for migrants that depicted a child spray-painting wallpaper over a
swastika were discovered in Paris.
Banksy has also created numerous artworks in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip over the years, including one depicting a girl conducting a
body search on an Israeli soldier, another showing a dove wearing a
flak jacket, and a masked protester hurling a bouquet of flowers. He
designed the “Walled Off Hotel” guesthouse in Bethlehem, which
closed in October 2023.
Last summer, Banksy captured London’s attention with an
animal-themed collection, which concluded with a mural of a gorilla
appearing to hold up the entrance gate to London Zoo.
For nine days straight, Banksy-created creatures — from a mountain
goat perched on a building buttress to piranhas circling a police
guard post to a rhinoceros mounting a car — showed up in unlikely
locations around the city.
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