A series of unsigned murals sprang up in Paris last week. These works taking aim at migration in Paris are believed to be created by British street artist Banksy.
The graffiti painter expressed his criticism of the negative feelings towards migration in France by ‘blitzing’ the French capital with at least seven new murals. The first one was discovered in northern Paris on June 20, World Refugee Day.
It is a stencil of a young black girl, with a teddy bear and blankets at her feet, spray-painting a pink wallpaper pattern to cover up a black swastika on the wall.
A second mural takes reference from Jacques-Louis David’s painting of Napoleon Crossing the Alps on Horseback. The figure of Napoleon is replaced by someone with red cloak wrapped tightly around his face, suggesting France’s 2010 ban on face coverings in public places.
Two other rat-themed murals found in Paris are also attributed to Banksy. The first one is a rat with a Minnie Mouse's polka-dot bow sitting below the words 'May 1968', as a tribute to the May 1968 protest movement in France. The other one depicts a rat flying through the air on a popped champagne cork.
There is one found in the city center depicting a businessman with a three-legged dog. The man in a suit offers a bone to the dog with a handsaw behind his back, implying a possibility that the bone is from the leg cut off from the dog.