The phrase “Graffiti is a crime” is less the title of a single piece by Banksy than a slogan he has encountered repeatedly throughout his career, sometimes quoting it directly and sometimes turning it on its head. For that reason, it is more accurate here to look at the recurring place this phrase holds in Banksy’s work rather than at one single, definite piece.

In Britain and in many places around the world, councils and railway companies put up warning signs bearing exactly this sentence in areas affected by graffiti. One strategy Banksy has followed throughout his career has been to place his own work next to, or directly onto, this kind of official warning sign, mocking authority in its own language.

The bigger question behind this phrase forms the foundation of Banksy’s entire career: why is painting a wall without permission called “vandalism”, yet the same image becomes “art” once it is shown in a gallery or sold at auction for millions of dollars?

This “slogan” is perhaps Banksy’s most compressed manifesto, a reminder that the boundaries between law and art, between crime and freedom of expression, are not fixed or neutral, but drawn by relations of power.