New Banksy spotted with Valentine's Day theme - artist's first in UK for more than a year

Banksy has unveiled a new Valentine’s Day ‘Mascara’ artwork, focusing on domestic violence.

The infamous street artist has revealed his latest work which appeared in Margate, Kent, at the beginning of the week.

It shows a woman dressed in 1950s-style clothing wearing cleaning gloves.

She’s pushing someone, presumably her husband, into a discarded freezer but all you can see is his legs poking out the end.

However, the piece is a commentary on the massive issue of domestic violence in the UK and abroad.

On closer inspection, the woman can be seen to be sporting a black eye and has seemingly had a tooth knocked out.

Further inspection of the art shows the housewife has a black eye and lost a tooth - presumably due to domestic abuse (PA)

The image, also shared to his almost 12 million Instagram followers, also shares the artwork’s name ‘Valentine’s Day Mascara’.

This marks the first work the elusive artist has claimed since his surprise stint working in Ukraine in October and November last year.

It is his first back in Britain for over a year since he produced thousands of t-shirts to raise money for the Colston 4 in Bristol when they were being taken to court at the end of December 2021.

The work is typical of Banksy’s style and pairs together the environment, an overturned dumped freezer, with his art to make a commentary on social or political issues.

It first appeared Monday morning and was spotted by locals, kickstarting speculation that it might be another Banksy - but it wasn’t claimed until today.

Local resident Amy Richardson told BristolLive she first saw it first thing on Monday morning after a broadband van was driven away from the spot, and it was there behind.

It is not the first time Banksy has created art in Kent, back in 2017 he made a piece which depicted a man on a ladder chipping away a star from the EU flag.

Nor is it the first time the celebrated street artist has marked Valentine’s Day either as three years ago he released a new take on The Girl with the Balloon - one of his most renowned pieces.

This time, on a wall on a house in Bristol, he showed the girl bursting the balloon with a catapult which shed rose petals down the wall.