A man who tried to stop three masked thieves from removing a Banksy artwork in Peckham says he was kicked in the side and had his phone thrown during the “tetchy” confrontation.
The artwork of a wolf howling on a satellite dish was stolen just hours after being unveiled by the Bristol-based street artist on Thursday afternoon.
The artist has posted several photos of his art this week across different locations in London this week.
Tom Kellow, who lives in Peckham, said he had decided to walk down to Rye Road to see the artwork on his lunch break.
He told the PA news agency: “I was walking down around 1pm and saw three guys nicking it.
“They had a ladder. There was one guy on the roof and the other two were watching the ladder.
“They saw me filming and it got a bit tetchy. One gave me a kick in the side and another tried to throw my phone on the roof. Luckily it hit a tree and came back down again.
“I told a police officer in the area about it.
“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.”
The first piece of graffiti in the series, which he shared on his Instagram account 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 another design to the collection: silhouettes of two elephants with their trunks stretched toward each other on the side of a building near Chelsea.
This was followed by a trio of monkeys looking as though they were swinging from underneath a bridge over Brick Lane, near a vintage clothing shop and a coffee house in the popular East London market street, not far from Shoreditch High Street.
The primates have been associated with the Japanese proverb “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”.
In Banksy’s work the monkeys are not covering their eyes, ears or mouths.
He did not write a caption for any of the Instagram posts, which has fuelled speculated online about their meaning.
The work follows a migrant boat created by Banksy, which was crowdsurfed at Glastonbury Festival in June, during performances by Bristol indie punk band Idles and rapper Little Simz.
It was described by then-home secretary James Cleverly as “trivialising” small boats crossings and “vile”, but the artist responded saying his reaction was a “a bit over the top”.
In March, the artist created a tree mural in north London, which saw a tree cut back with green paint sprayed behind it to give the impression of foliage.
In December the artist posted to his social media to confirm that a traffic stop sign in Peckham, covered with three aircraft said to resemble military drones, had been created by him.
Less than an hour after it was confirmed as a genuine installation witnesses saw the artwork being removed by a man with bolt cutters.
