(CNN) – A new work by Banksy was reportedly removed from a London street shortly after the artist posted it on Instagram.
The artist posted a series of photos of the work, which consists of three drones at a stop sign, on social media around noon local time (7 a.m. Miami time) on Friday.
But at 12.30pm two men were seen removing the signal at a junction in Peckham, south-east London, witnesses told PA Media news agency.
“I opened Instagram and saw it had been posted four minutes ago and I was just about to go on my lunch break. When I got there there were about two people there. We all felt like admiring it and taking photos,” Alex, 26, told PA.
“We stood there looking stunned as they destroyed it,” added Alex, who recounted how the man was unable to remove the sign with his hands and walked away for several minutes before returning with bolt cutters .
“We said, 'What are you doing?', but no one knew what to do, we just stared. “We were all a little perplexed,” the witness continued.
“He tore it down, crossed the street and ran away. He said nothing. He didn’t seem to be particularly interested in the art itself,” Alex added.
(Source: Aaron Chown/AP)
Another witness, who told PA he preferred to remain anonymous, expressed disappointment at the removal of the sign.
“It's strange, these works of art are beautiful, it would be nice if they had stayed there for a while,” he said.
PA reported that Banksy himself is not believed to be behind the removal of the artwork.
The mysterious artist is known for confirming his works on social media without making any further comments.
Some interpret the latest work as a call for a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, as Banksy is known to support the Palestinian cause.
The artist owns a hotel in the city of Bethlehem, just steps from the imposing Israeli separation barrier that runs through the West Bank.
Banksy opened the Walled Off Hotel in 2017 to raise awareness of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, describing itself as the hotel with the “worst view in the world.”
Although the market value of his work has skyrocketed in recent years, Banksy continues to produce works in public spaces that are nearly impossible to preserve and even invite theft or defacement.
“Spy Booth,” one of Banksy’s most famous murals depicting three secret agents surrounding a phone booth with recording devices, was destroyed in 2016.
And in February this year, an abandoned freezer that was part of an artwork found in the English town of Margate was removed, just hours after Banksy confirmed the piece was his.
In 2018, the artist famously destroyed one of his own works: his painting of a girl with a red balloon, which self-destructed shortly after selling for $1.4 million.
CNN's Lianne Kolirin, Zeena Saifi and Nadeem Muaddi contributed to this report.