BBC News
Banksy / InstagramBanksy’s latest piece of graffiti art, revealed to the world on Thursday, has now been traced to a street in Marseille.
Images posted on the elusive artist’s Instagram depict a lighthouse stencilled on a drab, beige wall, along with the words: “I want to be what you saw in me.”
A false shadow appears to have been drawn on the pavement from a nearby bollard, giving the illusion that the lighthouse is itself a silhouette of the mundane street furniture.
Its location was initially a mystery, but BBC Verify has confirmed it as Rue Félix Fregier in the southern French city.
An image of the art circulating online shows a blurred person riding a scooter in front of the piece, with a graffiti tag seemingly reading “Yaze” further along the wall.
The tag matches that used by a Canadian graffiti artist Marco The Polo, whose Instagram account features photos of his own work but who has called Banksy an inspiration.
GoogleBanksy has kept his true identity a secret throughout his career, and it is only through the Instagram account that works are identified as genuine.
Often imbuing his works with a political message, his previous pieces have alluded to immigration, the war in Ukraine and homelessness, among other things.
The meaning of some of his works, though, is less clear – such as his motivation behind the series of animals painted in various locations across London last summer.
Prior to the lighthouse, in December, Banksy posted a piece depicting a Madonna and child, with a fixture in the wall appearing like a bullet wound in her chest.
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