Is Banksy's latest spree a comment on Gaza?

The artist has reignited the same criminalor genius?’ arguments but there are signs his new Londonworks are more than just monkey business

- Carol Diehl

Banksy is back, and his nine graffitied works around London in nine days have prompted the usual questions. Is it art? Vandalism? And what does it mean, anyway? All featured wild animals among them a horned mountain goat perched atop a narrow column, a trio of acrobatic monkeys swinging across a bridge, pelicans eating fish on a wall above a fish bar, a randy rhinoceros mounting an abandoned grey car with a horn-like traffic cone on its hood and, at London zoo on the last day, a gorilla lifting a curtain to release a sea lion, birds and butterflies to freedom.

Meanwhile, in contrast to the public's enthusiasm, the critics' reaction, as is their wont regarding Banksy, was hardly hospitable. The Guardian's Jonathan Jones wrote, "At his best he's a satirical agent provocateur with few rivals. At worst he's vacantly sentimental or ideologically crass, often both at the same time", while the Spectator's Igor Toronyi-Lalic grumped in an interview that Banksy is "the worst artist in history... the biggest moron who has ever existed in art".