BANKSY // Mona Lisa with AK-47, 2000

  • Banksy’s 2000 Mona Lisa with AK47 merges art history with violence, iconic subversive twist.
    Banksy, Mona Lisa with AK47, 2000.
    Spray-paint stencil on board, 122 × 122 cm. Stencilled “BANKSY” lower right.
    © Banksy.
    Mona Lisa with AK-47 (2000) takes one of the most recognisable images in Western art history and twists it into an icon of rebellion. Banksy replaces Leonardo da Vinci’s enigmatic figure with a monochrome stencil, stripped of elegance and loaded instead with menace. The Mona Lisa smiles faintly as she clutches an assault rifle, the absurdity of the pairing turning a Renaissance masterpiece into a street-level provocation.
     
    By arming the world’s most famous sitter, Banksy critiques both the sanctity of art history and the culture of violence that permeates modern life. The piece fuses humour with unease, suggesting that no symbol is immune from recontextualisation. Mona Lisa with AK-47 remains one of Banksy’s boldest early confrontations with authority, beauty, and fear.
     
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  • "Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”  
    - Banksy
    Created in 2000, Mona Lisa with AK-47 depicts the Renaissance subject rendered in Banksy’s characteristic black stencil. The figure stands against a neutral ground, holding a military-grade weapon across her torso. The clash of high culture with street imagery heightens the irony, turning da Vinci’s painting into a commentary on aggression, power, and the subversion of icons. This work reflects Banksy’s growing interest in reworking cultural masterpieces to deliver cutting social critiques.
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