Provocative street artist Banksy is believed to have taken his message on migration to Paris.
Seven works attributed to the graffiti artist have been discovered in recent days, including one near a former centre for migrants at the French capital’s northern edge, according to the art website Artistikrezo.
Nicolas Laugero Lasserre, the site’s editor, said he heard a few weeks ago through contacts in the French street art world that Bansky was planning a trip.
Mr Laugero Lasserre said the first work was found at the Porte de la Chappelle area on Wednesday – that of a child spray-painting wallpaper over a swastika.
He said the wallpaper stencil was used in a 2009 exposition at the Bristol Museum, describing it as “a real signature”.
It did not take long for others to add – or detract – from Banksy’s work.
First came the blue tag over the wallpaper. Then on Monday, another artist temporarily covered over Banksy’s work with a poster depicting a woman’s face, but the paper was quickly pulled off and an art restorer frantically tried to cover the works with a clear plastic.
Not all the works directly reference migration. One is a play on the 1801 painting of Napoleon crossing the Alps. Others show rats, including one that appeared to have been altered over the weekend.
“It lands at a key political moment, and for me that’s really the genius of Banksy,” Mr Laugero Lasserre said.
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