Three of the most recent works British street artist Banksy did in London cost UK taxpayers about 175,000 euros in cleaning and security operations, revealed the British BBC public station today.
© Getty Images
09/08/2026
by
Lusa
O the highest individual cost corresponds to a wall painted in the Royal Courts of Justice of London in September 2025, where Banksy portrayed a judge raising the hammer on a protester holding a poster.
The removal and security work of this mural cost more than 85,000 pounds (EUR 99,203), the British Ministry of Justice confirmed, following a request for access to public information submitted by the BBC.
Since it is a building classified as Grade II, it is mandatory to preserve its original appearance. Thus, right after the completion of the work, a complaint was filed for “material damage” to the police, the area being isolated and cleaning work began immediately.
Banksy's latest work, a statue of a man holding a flag about to fall off a pedestal, located since April near Trafalgar Square, cost Westminster District City Hall about 60,000 pounds (70,000 euros) between security barriers, maintenance and payment of a security guard to watch the site.
According to the municipality, the property of the statue, which remains exposed, “belongs now to the City Hall as owner of the land”, and are being studied “short, medium and long term options”.
In August 2024, as part of a series of daily animal-themed works called “The London Zoo”, Banksy turned a London City Police guard into a piranha aquarium.
The guard was removed at a cost of about 2,500 euros. From next November, it will be displayed at the new London Museum, according to the Spanish news agency Efe.
Banksy's work, considered one of the most influential urban artists of today, although his identity is unknown, always provokes a huge uproar and has been stolen, erased or auctioned by values in the order of millions, leading to the question of whether it will be art or vandalism.
The Conservative Party spokesman for Justice, Nick Timothy, considered “indignant” that taxpayers’ money should be spent to clean up “the damage” caused by Banksy, who, he said, “seems to believe that he has the right to damage public buildings with impunity.”.
The art critic Estelle Lovatt argued, on the other hand, that the work of the graffiti artist attracts a huge amount of tourists, “unites people” and “makes art accessible, because there is no need to pay entrance to a gallery”.