The artwork was quickly covered up by large sheets of plastic and metal barriers. Court officials told the BBC the work would be removed.
The Metropolitan police said it had received a report of criminal damage and that enquiries would continue.
A spokesperson for HM Courts and Tribunals said that the Royal Courts of Justice was a listed building and that it was “obliged to maintain its original character”.
The spot Banksy chose was on an external wall of the Queen’s Building, part of the Royal Courts of Justice complex, on the usually quiet Carey Street. On Monday it was busy with onlookers taking pictures of the recently hidden patch of wall.
One of two security officers outside the building said they did not know how much longer they would be required to stand guard, adding, “At least it’s not raining.”
The Bristol-based street artist shared a photo of the wall art on Instagram, which is Banksy’s usual method of claiming a work as authentic. The artist captioned the picture: “Royal Courts Of Justice. London.”
Labour peer Baroness Harriet Harman said she believed the work was a “protest about the law” without specifying which legislation she meant.
“Parliament makes the law, and the judges simply interpret the law,” she added. “I don’t think there’s any evidence, in terms of the right to protest, that judges have been clamping down on protests beyond what Parliament intended.”
Banksy’s stencilled graffiti is often critical of government policy, war and capitalism.
Last summer, the artist began an animal-themed campaign in the capital of nine works, which concluded with a gorilla appearing to lift up a shutter on the entrance to London Zoo.
Other notable works included piranhas swimming on a police sentry box in the City of London, and a howling wolf on a satellite dish, which was taken off the roof of a shop in Peckham, south London, less than an hour after it was unveiled.
Banksy has in the past also been known for his work in the West Bank.
LONDON — A new mural by elusive street artist Banksy showing a judge beating an unarmed protester with a gavel has appeared outside a London court.
The mural 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 Monday on Instagram, his usual method of claiming a work as authentic. It was captioned “Royal Courts Of Justice. London.”
While the artwork does not 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.
Security officials outside the courthouse covered the mural Monday with sheets of black plastic and two metal barriers, and it was being guarded by two officers and a CCTV camera.
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.
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 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. A year prior, 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 also 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.
The image is iconic — Kobe Bryant letting out a roar while tugging on his gold Lakers jersey after scoring 49 points during a playoff win over the Denver Nuggets on April 23, 2008.
It has been used in numerous murals around Southern California, including one that is being painted in larger-than-life form on the side of a future Eat Fantastic restaurant on the 700 block of North Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach.
This particular painting, however, is a little different from the others, and from the original image itself. Bryant’s intensity is still there. His pose is exactly the same. He is still wearing a No. 24 jersey.
But in this version, that jersey is not gold with “Lakers” spelled across the chest in purple letters.
It’s white, with “Dodgers” across the chest in blue letters.
Gustavo Zermeño Jr. altered an iconic image of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant for a Dodgers mural he is painting in Redondo Beach.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
The altered version of the iconic image is just one portion of a sprawling mural paying tribute to the Dodgers’ 2024 World Series championship. It’s on the north-facing side of a former Carl’s Jr. building that will open later this year as part of the growing Eat Fantastic chain in the Los Angeles area.
The mural was conceived by artist Gustavo Zermeño Jr. and Eat Fantastic owner Efthemios Alexander Tsiboukas. It features some of the key figures from the Dodgers’ title run — players Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani (with his beloved dog Decoy) and rapper Ice Cube, who is shown riding in a classic Dodger blue convertible as he did when he performed before Game 3 of the World Series.
And then there’s the late Lakers legend Bryant, whose inclusion in the piece was a must, Zermeño said.
“Each [Eat Fantastic] location has a Kobe mural, at least the ones that have a good wall,” said Zermeño, who is a huge fan of both the Dodgers and Bryant. “And for this location, [Tsiboukas] wanted to create something for the Dodgers’ championship team. That’s why Kobe has the Dodger jersey on, you know, staying on theme with the locations having a Kobe mural.”
Zermeño said the original idea was to paint Bryant wearing a Dodgers baseball jersey, as he did while attending the team’s games over the years before his shocking death in January 2020.
Lakers’ Kobe Bryant celebrates a three–pointer against the Denver Nuggets on April 23, 2008, at Staples Center.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
“So we looked up a bunch of images,” Zermeño said. “A lot of them are obviously cool images, but either they were very pixelated, or just didn’t have what we wanted, that really aggressive Mamba-mentality feel.
“So we found this image. And you know, this image has been done before in several murals. But with the Dodger jersey, we wanted to throw a twist on it.”
Tsiboukas said: “That’s my favorite picture of him. I have the exact same one [painted at the restaurant location] in Arcadia. He’s wearing the real jersey, though, the yellow one. So I wanted a replica of that same one I did in Arcadia, and do it in a Dodger jersey, because of the Dodger dynasty right now.”
The purple and gold may have been removed from the jersey, but Zermeño said he purposefully incorporated them into the sunset depicted behind Bryant as a nod to the Lakers.
Zermeño started working on the mural Aug. 7 and expects to have it completed next week, ahead of Bryant’s Aug. 23 birthday. The portion featuring Bryant is already done — and it has garnered mixed reactions.
“For the most part, I’ve gotten a pretty positive reaction over it,” Zermeño said. “You know, a lot of Laker fans are also Dodger fans, so I think that overlap is pretty consistent throughout L.A. But yeah, man, you’re always going to have some haters. I think a lot of it is more like playful taunting. …
“A couple of people driving by — I think they’re just trying to be funny, making a joke, like yelling ‘He didn’t play for the Dodgers!’ or like, ‘He was a Laker!’ And then some people are just curious why I made that change. I think the people that are curious are older, some of the older crowd that, I guess, doesn’t understand why I would switch it, you know?”
Tsiboukas said he has seen a lot of online discussion about it, including on the popular kobemural Instagram page.
“Maybe 70% love it, and 30% are like, ‘That looks like a Clipper jersey,’” Tsiboukas said. “It’s causing a lot of friction back and forth, but it’s good topic. It’s raising awareness. It’s keeping Kobe’s legacy alive.”
Gustavo Zermeño Jr. hand paints part of Mookie Betts’ mouth onto his Dodgers mural outside the future Eat Fantastic restaurant in Redondo Beach.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and his dog Decoy, holding a Dodger Dog toy in his mouth, are depicted in a new mural by Gustavo Zermeño Jr.
(Chuck Schilken / Los Angeles Times)
Zermeño said he doesn’t mind the discourse over his artwork.
“It just, it sparks that conversation,” he said. “So regardless of whether people like it or not, I think it kind of breaks the ice for people to come up and ask questions and learn more about why we created it, and the process of putting it together. …
“It’s art, you know, and art’s meant to kind of create some type of conversation. And if we were to put him with a regular jersey, people would have been like, ‘Oh, that’s cool, but it’s been done X amount of times,’ you know? I’ve seen that photo in at least five different murals. So, yeah, I think switching it up definitely — I don’t want to say it elevated the piece, but it definitely created more conversation than there would be if we just kept the original jersey.”
Nine months after his death, Fernando Valenzuela stands immortalized in a new mural on the loge‑level wall at Dodger Stadium — a vibrant fusion of art and legacy unveiled Saturday.
Painted by Mexican American artist Robert Vargas, the mural shows Valenzuela tipping his cap to the sky in a Dodgers Mexican‑heritage jersey — featuring a green sleeve, red sleeve, white center — alongside two striking images of Valenzuela in his pitching stance. Vargas said the mural is meant to symbolize unity within the Latino community.
“I felt it very important to show that the Latino community has a place within these walls and has had a place within these walls,” Vargas said.
He wanted to reflect Valenzuela’s spirit that still lives in the hearts of many fans and feature the man behind the player.
For 34.
Prior to tonight’s game, the Dodgers unveiled a mural dedicated to Fernando Valenzuela in the Left Field Loge Terrace. His family and former teammates also joined the unveiling. pic.twitter.com/Kn4W1yze9L
“What he did in the community, is what resonates so much more for me than just the player — but the man, the person that he was,” Vargas said.
Valenzuela played for the Dodgers from 1980 to 1990. He grew up in Etchohuaquila, a small town in Mexico, and took Major League Baseball by storm in 1981, earning rookie of the year and Cy Young honors. Latino fans who previously felt little connection to the Dodgers were thrilled to see one of their own winning, sparking Fernandomania. Valenzuela wore No. 34 and it remains a popular jersey worn by fans at Dodger Stadium.
Claudio Campo choked up as he gazed at the tribute. Traveling from Phoenix with his son to celebrate the boy’s 11th birthday, Campo shared memories of a player whose greatness felt deeply personal. Valenzuela’s nickname, “El Toro,” are inked on Campo’s left arm.
“He was a staple for the people that didn’t have anything and then where he came from showed that anything is possible if you go ahead and revive what you are,” Claudio said.
Fans holding Valenzuela bobbleheads given away by the Dodgers took their pictures in front of the new mural Saturday night.
Longtime fan Dulce Gonzalez held back emotion as she showed off her shirt with the name “Valenzuela” written across it, describing the reason she started watching baseball.
“He was the first Latino player I could truly connect with and be proud of,” she said.
For Gonzalez, Valenzuela’s story resonated because he came from the same roots, offering representation she had longed for.
“We are a melting pot of races here, people love baseball from all races, but because I am Latina, I feel a little bit more connected,” she said.
Her son, Nicolas, dressed in a red and green Dodgers Mexican-heritage jersey, said Valenzuela helped heal some wounds after Mexican American families were displaced from their homes in Chavez Ravine shortly before Dodger Stadium was built on the same land.
“He really opened the city up to the Dodgers after a long difficult entry and he really represented triumph over adversity,” Nicolas said.
ROUBAIX, France — As statements go, it’s a big one.
A towering mural in France of the Statue of Liberty covering her eyes is racking up millions of views online with its swipe at President Trump’s immigration and deportation policies.
Amsterdam-based street artist Judith de Leeuw described her giant work in the northern French town of Roubaix, which has a large immigrant community, as “a quiet reminder of what freedom should be.”
She said “freedom feels out of reach” for migrants and “those pushed to the margins, silenced, or unseen.”
“I painted her covering her eyes because the weight of the world has become too heavy to witness. What was once a shining symbol of liberty now carries the sorrow of lost meaning,” de Leeuw wrote in a July 4 post on Facebook, when Americans were celebrating Independence Day.
Her depiction of the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the French people in the late 1800s, has inspired some sharp criticism.
Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican lawmaker from Tennessee, wrote in a post on X that the work “disgusts me.” He said he had an uncle who fought and died in France, where U.S. forces saw combat in both World War I and World War II.
In an interview with the Associated Press, de Leeuw was unapologetic.
“I’m not offended to be hated by the Donald Trump movement. I am not sorry. This is the right thing to do,” she said.
The town stood by the work, with its deputy mayor in charge of cultural affairs, Frédéric Lefebvre, telling broadcaster France 3 that “it’s a very strong and powerful political message.”
Since returning to the White House amid anti-immigration sentiment, Trump has launched an unprecedented campaign that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him. People from various countries have been deported to remote and unrelated places like South Sudan and the small African nation of Eswatini.
Polling by Gallup released last week showed an increasing number of Americans who said immigration is a “good thing” and decreasing support for the type of mass deportations Trump has championed since before he was elected.
The mural in Roubaix is part of an urban street culture festival backed by the town. Roubaix is one of the poorest towns in France. It was economically devastated by the collapse since the 1970s of its once-flourishing textile industry that used to attract migrant workers from elsewhere in Europe, north Africa and beyond.
Plazy writes for the Associated Press. AP journalists Ahmad Seir in Amsterdam and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.
Dodgers utility player Kiké Hernández was not born and raised in Los Angeles.
A North Hollywood mural seemingly inspired by the San Juan, Puerto Rico, native’s stance on immigration sweeps shows that doesn’t matter.
Hernández began a June 14 Instagram post by stating, “I may not be Born & Raised, but this city adopted me as one of their own.”
Local artist Louie Palsino has cemented the second part of that statement in a new mural on the side of the Noho Tires & Wheels building on the 5600 block of Lankershim Boulevard. It features Hernández’s image surrounded by the words “Born X Raised” and “Los Angeles.”
Hernández said plenty more in the post, which seems to have inspired Palsino. The two-time World Series champion expressed support for his adopted city’s immigrants and dismay at how many of them were being treated in a series of sweeps by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The sweeps in Los Angeles have sparked protests locally and elsewhere in the country.
“I am saddened and infuriated by what’s happening in our country and our city,” Hernández wrote. “Los Angeles and Dodger fans have welcomed me, supported me and shown me nothing but kindness and love. This is my second home. And I cannot stand to see our community being violated, profiled, abused and ripped apart. ALL people deserve to be treated with respect, dignity and human rights.”
Under the name Sloe Motions, Palsino has painted a number of high-profile murals, including one in the Fashion District of Kobe and Gianna Bryant that was vandalized, restored, then vandalized again all within the last few months.
He declined to discuss the Hernández mural for this story, instead directing The Times to a statement he posted about it on Instagram last week.
“Thank you @kikehndez for standing up for what is right and for Los Angeles,” Palsino wrote. “this ain’t a political post or anything to stir up any government agenda to divide us. this is just paying homage to standing up for what is right and a real one.god over government.”
Palsino painted the Hernández mural on a building that already featured two of his other Dodgers-themed pieces — one of legendary broadcaster Vin Scully on an adjoining wall and one of iconic Mexican pitcher Fernando Valenzuela on the gate in front of the garage’s driveway
When the gate is pulled open, a split image of Valenzuela and Hernandez is created.
Local artist Louie Palsino has painted several Dodgers-themed murals on the Noho Tires & Wheels building in North Hollywood, including images of (clockwise from left) Vin Scully, Kiké Hernández and Fernando Valenzuela.
(Chuck Schilken / Los Angeles Times)
Hernández has been a Dodgers fan favorite since his first stint with the team in 2015-20. In 2017, he hit three home runs, including a grand slam, in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs to help send the Dodgers to the World Series.
Last postseason, Hernández was a key member of another Dodgers championship team. He hit one of the Dodgers’ two solo home runs in a 2-0 win against the San Diego Padres in the decisive Game 5 of the NL Division Series. He then contributed seven hits and four RBIs in the NLCS against the New York Mets and five hits against the New York Yankees in the 2024 World Series.
Weathered and bumpy, the wall hidden among the surplus clothing stores of the Fashion District was hardly the perfect canvas.
But artist Sloe Motions’ vision for the memorial mural in honor of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna following their deaths in 2020 brought the stretch of Main and 14th streets to life with vibrant hues of purple and gold.
One of the most well-known Kobe murals across Southern California, the art piece — outside Jimmy Jam T-Shirts — was the backdrop for a commercial for Super Bowl LVI featuring Vanessa Bryant and has drawn fans from near and far.
For years, the mural remained untouched — an unspoken mark of respect for the artist and the subject but one that abruptly ended this year.
In late March, someone tagged the artwork with large bubble letters outlined in black and filled in with white — a similar style to other street tagging visible across the city.
Sloe Motions went back to work, painstakingly restoring the mural. There was much fanfare in downtown when the new mural made its debut in late May. But within a few days, it was again defaced. The artist is disappointed but vows to restore it once again — this time in a new location.
“This one has a lot of meaning to it, so it hurts me that people would do something like this where they’re disrespecting the Bryant family. It just exposes these people’s demons,” Sloe Motions said.
Graffiti has long been an element of Los Angeles life, and residents of downtown are used to tags as part of the landscape. This is, after all, the place where taggers coated the unfinished Oceanwide Plaza high-rise complex with graffiti, generating international attention and debate about the line between art and vandalism.
But the treatment of the Kobe tribute surprised Sloe Motions.
“This isn’t just another Kobe mural. It’s a memorial,” he said.
Street art has long been a part of the culture of Los Angeles, where murals — sanctioned and unsanctioned — and graffiti harmoniously share canvas space. Some abide by the unwritten code that you don’t cover someone else’s art. Others take a more autonomous approach, creating what they want where they want.
“Great cities have great public art,” said Wyland, a Laguna Beach-based artist who has painted murals across the world. “This Kobe mural, it’s become part of the fabric of Los Angeles. And for someone to come in and destroy it like that doesn’t make any sense.”
Los Angeles is known as a city of murals — some of which remain respectfully untouched for years, while others like the Kobe memorial are a seemingly irresistible target for taggers. There was a time when some property owners believed hiring the right muralist to grace your walls — or including a portrait of the Virgen de Guadalupe — could keep taggers away. But not anymore.
In many ways downtown Los Angeles is the perfect gallery for viewing street art, turning nondescript buildings into colorful canvases that tell the story of the region.
Ife Ewing, co-owner of Jimmy Jam T-Shirts, says street art has changed in the 13 years her business has been housed on Main Street.
James Ewing, co-owner of Jimmy Jam T-Shirts, looks at a mural Wednesday of Kobe and Gianna Bryant that has been vandalized again on the side of the business at 14th and Main streets.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
“Before, it was isolated to designated areas,” she said. “It’s a different breed of artists now. They have no respect for business owners, property owners. It’s disrespectful. You have to call it what it is, it’s just disrespect.”
Sloe Motions is far from the only muralist to feel burned.
Judy Baca’s famed mural of a female Olympic runner is beloved, even though it has been hit by taggers in the past. Then in 2019, the mural — part of the 1984 Olympics art movement — was mysterious whitewashed, sparking outrage. Metro eventually admitted one of its graffiti abatement contractors had covered the mural and vowed to restore it.
“They would rather paint on the mural than see even a mark of graffiti on the mural,” Baca said at the time.
The latest vandalism to Bryant’s mural felt like another blow to the area.
A post on June 3 from the DTLA Insider Instagram account summed up the situation simply: “We really can’t have nice things.”
The mural image is a spin on a photograph capturing a sweet moment during the 2008 NBA Finals when the Lakers legend — a proud “girl dad” — leans down and kisses the side of his smiling toddler’s head as he cradles her in his arm during a news conference.
Sloe Motions was drawn to the emotion in the photograph — the purity of a father’s love and a daughter’s admiration for her hero. It was captured years before Gigi started playing basketball, showing off her own version of her dad’s envied fadeaway jumper.
Next to them, the words “Mambas Forever” with an infinity symbol are painted in purple and gold.
Bryant, 41, and 13-year-old Gigi, along with seven others — John Altobelli, 56; Keri Altobelli, 46; Alyssa Altobelli, 13; Christina Mauser, 38, Sarah Chester, 45; Payton Chester, 13; and pilot Ara Zobayan, 50 — died Jan. 26, 2020, when the helicopter Zobayan was flying crashed in the hills of Calabasas.
After the initial vandalism in late March, Sloe Motions had sought donations to help cover the cost of restoring the mural in the current location, hoping to preserve the spot for the Bryant family.
“There’s just a lot of meaning at that wall,” he said.
Lakers star Luka Doncic’s foundation quickly jumped into action, donating $5,000, the full amount needed, to a fundraiser to help restore the art piece.
In late May, Sloe Motions posted on Instagram that the mural was finally finished. He’d added a few additional touches, painting the No. 8 on Gigi’s jersey, an homage to the number that Kobe wore for the first 10 seasons of his career.
A week later, the new details were still visible but under the scrawl of white paint.
On June 4, television news cameras were positioned near the mural, and passersby stopped to assess the damage. A jumble of bright white paint cut across the image, and heavy white dots covered Kobe’s and Gigi’s eyes.
“This time, they really went heavy,” Sergio Bautista, 35, said as he stood in front of the mural. “It’s sad to see.”
Sky Hendrix, who was in the area filming a music video with a friend, expressed his disbelief.
“That’s disrespecting the dead,” Hendrix said as he took in the scene. “Who would do that? He’s the GOAT and she’s just a little girl.”
Despite the vandalism, Sloe Motions showed no real sign of anger as he talked about the future of the art piece somewhere else where more people could view and appreciate it. He said he sent “prayers” to the people who vandalized his work.
“Nothing’s forever, and that’s the beauty of this stuff,” Sloe Motions said. “Some stuff could last a minute, some stuff could last a day, some stuff could last years.”
Times photographer Genaro Molina contributed to this report.
