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A Banksy mural with a checkered past has been located by sleuths at the British Broadcasting Service (BBC). The semi-anonymous artist painted the piece in 2018 on Scott Street Bridge in Hull, a port city in East Yorkshire, England. The BBC has discovered that it is being kept in storage in Norfolk, more than 120 miles away, and that its future is unknown.
The mural shows a young boy, apparently dressed for battle in a helmet and raising wooden sword with a pencil attacked to its tip. He cries out “draw the raised bridge!” as he seems to sit on a graffiti writer’s tag. The joke being that the work is adorned on a bridge set to be razed: It’s been closed to traffic since 1994 due to its poor condition, frozen in a raised position. Banksy also plays with the notion of the pen being mightier than the sword, attaching an actual writing implement to a mock weapon.
While Banksy does not typically explain his works, some saw a commentary on Brexit; the referendum took place in 2016, and Hull voted 68% to separate from the European Union. The piece was painted over in white by vandals but quickly saved by a fast-acting window cleaner who rushed to save it. Some saw irony in the fact that authorities in Hull, named the UK’s “city of culture” in 2017, failed to protect the piece.
According to a city filing, the Hull City Council said it would pay a company some £60,000 ($79,420) to move the 22-foot-wide mural to the city’s Trinity Market, where it would also build and install a display case for the piece. The city council has not replied to repeated BBC requests as to whether the contract was awarded.
“Nobody will tell us where this painting is and when it’s going to be put on display,” local councilor Rosie Nicola told the news network. “It’s wrong.”
The whereabouts of the sculpture were hinted at in 2025, during a meeting of a committee of the council, when Angela Blake, the city’s assistant director of major projects, was asked where the artwork was. “It’s a secret,” she replied. Chris Jackson, the council’s executive director for regeneration, added: “I’m not sure we’re allowed to say.”
Engineering firm Alan Wood and Partners secured a £900,000 ($1.2 million) contract to dismantle the bridge and preserve the artwork, notes the BBC.
The artist remained anonymous for years, with various rumors of his identity catching fire. In March, Reuters claimed to reveal his given name and backstory.