Mystery as Banksy inspired capybara mural appears on The A Bar
Mystery surrounds a new Banksy-esque capybara painting which has appeared on the side of a popular restaurant.
The A Bar, in Old Portsmouth, has been branded with a new capybara mural which was noticed by staff this morning following a covert operation caught on CCTV.
A spokesperson for The A Bar said: “It’s just above the flat roof so the team arrived early this morning so they saw it straight away and looked at the CCTV. It was just before 3 o’clock this morning and it was a masked person who was wearing a high-vis, and was carrying a bucket and step ladder.”
The artwork, which depicts a runaway capybara attached to a parachute, is thought to pay homage to Samba, the nine-month-old rodent who went missing from Marwell Zoo last month.
Samba was one of two capybaras being moved into Marwell Zoo - along with sister Tango - having arrived from Jimmy's Farm & Wildlife Park before escaping her temporary holding.
Despite a major search and rescue mission, the capybara remains missing.
The spokesperson continued: “I think it’s really fitting because it’s been prominent in the local news with Samba the capybara making the headlines.
“There is definitely some excitement around it and we don’t see it as ‘we’ve been targetted’ but we think it’s really sweet and capybaras are so cute so we aren’t mad about it. It isn’t massive or offensive.”
Within the mural is the artist tag ‘Pidg’ which seemingly takes credit for The A Bar’s latest addition, but the identity of the creator remains unknown.
It comes after an identical stencil painting appeared on the wall at London Road Brew House, in Southampton, with the same tag, sparking intrigue at who the new Banksy-esque artist is.
The A Bar spokesperson added: “Banksy is most famous for the girl holding the balloon art so it’s quite a nice symbol of that - but there are definitely a lot of questions.”