Banksy-Attributed Sculpture Appears in London as Venice Biennale Faces New Scrutiny
A new sculpture attributed to Banksy has appeared in London’s Waterloo Place, adding another pointed intervention to the artist’s long record of public works that turn civic space into a stage for political commentary. The piece shows a man in a suit stepping confidently off a plinth while holding a flag that fully covers his face, a visual joke with a sharp edge: authority advancing while blind to what lies ahead.
The work was first spotted near statues of Edward VII, Florence Nightingale, and the Crimean War Memorial. By the time it was reported, Banksy had not confirmed authorship, though the sculpture closely matches the artist’s habit of using public placement and plainspoken imagery to unsettle familiar symbols of power.
The London appearance arrived alongside a separate flashpoint in Venice. Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli has ordered inspectors to the Venice Biennale headquarters as scrutiny intensifies over Russia’s participation in the exhibition. Giuli also said he will not attend the Biennale opening in protest of the Russian pavilion’s involvement.
The latest checks follow earlier inspections and come after Italian media published internal emails that were presented as evidence that Biennale organizers had sidestepped sanctions against Russia to facilitate its participation. Biennale leaders have strongly denied those accusations. The dispute has become one of the most closely watched administrative and political questions surrounding this year’s edition.
Elsewhere in the art world, the day’s news included the deaths of German artist Timm Ulrichs (1936–2024), whose practice ranged across body art, land art, collage, poetry, and light installations, and Japanese sculptor Shigeo Toya (1946–2024), who wrote about the “body of the gaze” in his work. The Prado in Madrid is also presenting José Aparicio’s The Year of the Famine in Madrid (1818) after more than 150 years away from the museum, while in San Francisco, Friends of the Plaza has filed an appeal to block the dismantling of Vaillancourt Fountain.
Taken together, the day’s reports point to a familiar art-world tension: the pull between public symbolism and institutional power, whether on a London plinth or inside the machinery of a major international biennial.
