Radar Rat, 2003
Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner
Auction History
Estimated: HKD 800,000 – 1,500,000
Radar Rat is one of Banksy’s most iconic rodent incarnations — a small, subversive character equipped not with cheese or chains, but with a surveillance device. Spray-painted in classic black stencil against a weathered grey surface, this rat holds a radio transmitter or directional microphone, scanning the world with quiet urgency.
First appearing in 2003, Radar Rat emerged during an era of rising state surveillance, post-9/11 paranoia, and the early years of mass data tracking. Banksy’s choice of a rat, the quintessential urban survivor and symbol of the unseen, becomes a sly metaphor for the average citizen in an age of control. Just as rats move undetected through cities, people too are navigating increasingly monitored environments. But this rat is not just surviving, he is listening back!
The brilliance lies in the inversion: here, it is the rat who spies on the system, not the other way around. The creature that once represented pestilence or rebellion is now a resistance fighter in the information war. Like many of Banksy’s best pieces, Radar Rat is humorous, deceptively simple, and laced with political bite.
Whether interpreted as a nod to whistleblowers, a critique of authoritarian overreach, or simply a champion of street-level defiance, Radar Rat endures as one of Banksy’s most beloved and conceptually rich animal figures.
