Banksy’s coronavirus-related artwork removed from London Underground train

Banksy’s latest artwork inside a London Underground train carriage, with messages about the spread of coronavirus, has been removed by Transport for London.

The graffiti artist uploaded a 59-second video captioned “If you don’t mask – you don’t get” to his Instagram and YouTube pages on Tuesday afternoon.

It showed Banksy spray painting stencils of his famous rats inside a Circle Line train.

One of those rats looked to be sneezing blue droplets across the train window, indicating the spread of the virus.

TfL confirmed on Tuesday evening that the work was removed “some days ago” due to strict anti-graffiti policy, but that it would welcome Banksy to recreate his message “in a suitable location”.

The video begins with a laptop playing footage showing the London Underground being deep cleaned in May.

Banksy – clad in a white boiler suit, mask, goggles, blue gloves and an orange hi-viz jacket with the message “stay safe” printed on it – climbs on board a train posing as a TfL worker.

The video shows him ushering a masked passenger to move back, before stencilling a rat using a blue face mask as a parachute.

Another rat has a blue mask over its face, while one holds a bottle of hand sanitiser.

The video finishes with a message sprayed on the wall of a Tube station reading: “I get lockdown” with the doors of the Tube carriage closing to reveal the message “But I get up again”.

Chumbawamba’s song Tubthumping – also known as I Get Knocked Down – plays as the doors touch together.

There are two rats, one on each of the carriage’s doors, looking at each other.