Banksy’s guerrilla gorilla, which was on display at London Zoo in Regent’s Park last week, has been removed for conservation reasons. The vignette, painted in the British street artist’s trademark black and white spray paint, was painted on a steel roller shutter door at the zoo’s entrance and showed a monkey stealthily lifting the shutter like a curtain, releasing other animals into the park.

The gorilla was the ninth and final work in a series of animals that appeared daily in the British capital from August 4. Now a reproduction of the work stands in its place with a sign reading “Banksy woz ere.”

A mural of a gorilla freeing animals adorns a wall at the London Zoo in London, England, August 13, 2024. Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images.

The zoo said it had removed the anonymous artist’s mural from its gate for safekeeping – so the zoo could reopen to full capacity after hordes of visitors came to view it on five days last week. The entrance had remained closed since the work appeared on Monday, August 12. Until its removal, the gate had remained closed and zoo officials had used a plexiglass cover to protect the work.

“We are thrilled by the joy this artwork has already brought so many people, but most of all we are incredibly grateful to Banksy for shining a light on wildlife,” zoo executive director Kathryn England said in a statement on the website. She added that the work was a “significant moment” in the zoo’s nearly 200-year history that “we are keen to preserve appropriately.”

A woman and children look at a mural of a goat by street artist Bansky in the Richmond district of London on August 5, 2024. Photo: Carl Court/Getty Images.

Sources close to the artist say that his intention with the animal series was to “cheer people up with a moment of unexpected amusement while gently emphasizing the human capacity for creative play rather than destruction and negativity.”

Each new addition to the artist’s citywide menagerie drew fans but also caused a stir. The zoo mural is the fifth in the animal series to be either stolen, defaced or misplaced.

People remove a new artwork by Banksy depicting a howling wolf painted on a satellite dish that was attached to a shop roof in Peckham, south London. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA Images via Getty Images.

A howling wolf painted on a satellite dish in the southeastern district of Peckham was taken away by masked men just hours after the artist confirmed on his Instagram page that it was his work. Within days, an old billboard with a big cat at its centre appeared in the northwestern enclave of Cricklewood. It was promptly removed by a team hired by the billboard’s owner, who told police the mural would be re-erected in an unnamed art gallery.

People gather around a work of art by street artist Banksy, the eighth to be published in eight days, depicting a rhinoceros climbing onto a car, on a wall in Charlton, London, on August 12, 2024. Photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images.

Shortly afterwards, a rhinoceros painted on a brick wall in the Charlton area, apparently trying to climb onto a broken-down car parked on the pavement, was sprayed with graffiti before the car was removed. Meanwhile, in central London, officers removed a school of piranhas painted on the windows of a police station.

“We have moved the artwork to Guildhall Yard to ensure it is appropriately protected and can be safely accessed by the public,” said a City of London Corporation spokesman. “A decision on the permanent location of the work will be made in due course.”

A City of London Police officer looks at a work of art by street artist Banksy, the seventh to be released this week, depicting piranhas swimming around a police emergency call box in the City of London, August 11, 2024. Photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images.

The removal or destruction of Banksy’s works has been a frequent occurrence throughout the artist’s decades-long career, and is in many ways intrinsic to his chosen medium of ephemeral public street art. According to Wikipedia, more than a dozen works have been removed from their original location, and around three times as many have been defaced, destroyed, or simply painted over.

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