On September 8, 2025, street artist Banksy painted a new mural on an exterior wall of the Royal Courts of Justice in London, depicting a judge using a gavel to beat a protester lying on the ground, with a red blood-like spatter on the protester's placard. The artwork was quickly covered and guarded, and by September 10, a masked man was filmed scrubbing the image off the wall while police stood nearby. The Ministry of Justice stated the mural was destroyed because the building is a protected heritage site, and the court was obliged to maintain its original character.
The mural's removal matters because it highlights tensions between freedom of expression and heritage protection, and it directly references recent political events: nearly 900 people were detained at a pro-Palestine protest on September 6, following a ban on the group Palestine Action. The Good Law Project, which filmed the removal, accused the court of erasing both the artwork and the right to protest, framing the destruction as a silencing of political dissent. The incident has sparked debate about censorship, public art, and the role of institutions in controlling political imagery.