Street artist Banksy up in arms about arms

Banksy protested last month against the Defence and Security Equipment International, a huge arms fair held at the Excel centre in Docklands, east London. An event called Art the Arms, featuring other artist-activists such as the Guerrilla Girls and Peter Kennard, was held at a nearby venue called the Set space. Banksy submitted a work called Civilian Drone Strike (2017), which “offered a critique of the military-industrial complex by deliberately destroying a rather nice child’s drawing”, says Sam Walton, co-organiser of the alternative event. The work was auctioned for £205,000, with the money to be split between the Campaign Against Arms Trade and Reprieve.