Banksy unveils Madonna unable to breastfeed child

Banksy has claimed a new artwork on Instagram depicting a Madonna unable to breastfeed her baby. The piece uses a pre-existing rusty hole to puncture the Virgin's breast, leaving the child frowning. This follows the artist's summer 2024 London animal series, where multiple interventions appeared across the city. The work is interpreted as a protest against ongoing war crimes and humanitarian crises, including child casualties and migrant deaths in the Mediterranean. Banksy previously engaged with Madonna iconography in his 2003 'Toxic Mary,' which showed the Virgin nursing from a bottle marked with a skull and crossbones, and in Naples with a gun-wielding Madonna inspired by Sant'Agnese in Agone. In June 2024, Banksy launched an inflatable migrant boat into the crowd during Idles' set at Glastonbury Festival. The new artwork's location remains unknown.