LOOTERS

Catalogue Note

Created during Banksy's 2008 New Orleans campaign, Looters depicts two National Guardsmen apparently stealing consumer electronics, one passing a television through an illusionistic window while the other stands beside a shopping cart filled with goods. The reversal is characteristic of Banksy: soldiers deployed to maintain order and prevent looting are themselves transformed into looters. The work appeared three years after Hurricane Katrina, when memories of the military presence, accusations of widespread looting and the highly controversial official response to the disaster remained closely associated with the city.

The mural uses humor to question the distinction between authority and criminality, a recurring theme throughout Banksy's work. Rather than depicting the National Guard as threatening figures, Banksy places them within an almost mundane scene of petty theft, allowing the absurdity of the role reversal to carry the criticism. As elsewhere in the New Orleans series, the work addresses Katrina indirectly, through the institutions and social tensions that surrounded its aftermath.

Looters was subsequently vandalized and partially painted over, but the section of wall was saved and underwent an extensive conservation process. The preserved mural was unveiled in 2017 and is now publicly displayed in the lobby of the International House Hotel in New Orleans, whose owner Sean Cummings participated in the effort to save it.