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# Hours After It Was Revealed, Someone Tagged a Banksy Mural About Homelessness
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/hours-after-it-was-revealed-someone-tagged-a-banksy-mural-about-homelessness/
- Published: 2019-12-10T23:04:41.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:52:56.000Z
- Description: Banksy's latest mural in Birmingham, England imagined two reindeer guiding a bench where a local homeless man slept. Soon after its debut, someone spray painted Rudolph-red noses.
- Author: Hakim Bishara
- Tags: In Brief, Banksy, Birmingham, Street Art, UK, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:41 (2019, 2020, part 2)

Banksy has descended upon the city of Birmingham in the United Kingdom to create a Christmas-themed mural with a powerful message on homelessness in the country.

Yesterday, December 9, the ever-elusive British street artist posted a video on his [Instagram account](https://www.instagram.com/p/B52l1NkHa71/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink) showing two reindeer painted on a brick wall pulling a homeless man on a bench. The mural was painted over the weekend in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, according to the [Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/dec/10/red-noses-banksy-birmingham-homeless-reindeer-mural?ref=hyperallergic.com).

“God bless Birmingham,” Banksy wrote in a caption for the video. The anonymous artist adds, “In the 20 minutes we filmed Ryan on this bench passers-by gave him a hot drink, two chocolate bars and a lighter – without him ever asking for anything.”

However, hours after Banksy posted the video on social media, the mural was vandalized when a local vandal decorated the reindeer with red noses. According to [BBC](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-50728590?ref=hyperallergic.com), The Jewellery Quarter Development Trust (JQDT) had installed barriers around the mural in Vyse Street to protect it from vandalism, but a person managed to jump them and alter the work. The local railway company, Network Rail, later [covered the piece with plexiglass](https://twitter.com/philmackie/status/1204364694770868224?s=20&ref=hyperallergic.com) to prevent further vandalism.

> Apparently, someone's already painted bright red noses onto the reindeer in [#Banksy](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Banksy?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=hyperallergic.com)'s latest street art in [#Birmingham](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Birmingham?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=hyperallergic.com). Gosh, that didn't take long… ? [pic.twitter.com/ftmqLSXIwi](https://t.co/ftmqLSXIwi?ref=hyperallergic.com)  
>  
> — I Am Birmingham (@IAmBirmingham) [December 9, 2019](https://twitter.com/IAmBirmingham/status/1204116856648486912?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=hyperallergic.com)

“As a railway family our hearts go out to the homeless, especially at this time of year,” David Golding of Network Rail told the [BBC](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-50728590?ref=hyperallergic.com). “We discourage any graffiti and we spend a lot of time removing it from around the network … but it’s not every day we get a bona fide Banksy.”