Story highlights
- Banksy artwork appears on UK city street but is soon taken down
- A youth center says it took the piece down to "prevent vandalism"
- The street art shows a couple embracing while checking their mobile phones
- A mural showing secret agents, believed to be a Banksy, also discovered this weekend
Now you see it, now you don't.
New street art by famously anonymous graffiti artist Banksy has been removed from a wall just hours after it was tracked down to a street in the British city of Bristol.
The artwork, called "Mobile Lovers," shows a couple checking their cell phones while in mid-embrace.
Members of the Broad Plain Boys youth center used a crowbar to remove it just hours after it was discovered, local media pictures showed.
In its place, the youth center posted a note saying it was held at the club "to prevent vandalism or damage being done."
A spokeswoman for the club told CNN the youth center had no plans for the stencil work for now. She said fans are welcome to view it, but they would be asked for a voluntary donation to club to help with the youth center's upkeep.
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
In June 2016 elusive UK street artist Banksy painted this mural for students at a primary school in his hometown of Bristol, England. Students had named a house at their school for the artist, who surprised them with the mural when they returned from a holiday break. Here's a look at some other notable Banksy works.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
On January 25, a new mural by street artist Banksy appeared on the French Embassy in London, criticising the French authorities' reported use of teargas in a refugee camp in Calais, France. A riff on the iconic Les Misérables poster, it shows a young girl enveloped by CS gas, crying.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A mural of a weeping woman, painted by the British street artist Banksy, is seen in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Wednesday, April 1. The mural was painted on a door of a house destroyed last summer during the fighting between Israel and Hamas. The owner of the house said he was tricked into selling the door for the equivalent of $175, not realizing the painting was by the famously anonymous artist.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A Palestinian child stands next to a Banksy mural of a kitten on the remains of a destroyed house in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, in February 2015.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A child in Beit Hanoun walks past a mural February 2015 that depicts children using an Israeli watchtower as a swing ride.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A Banksy mural depicting pigeons holding anti-immigration signs was destroyed by the local council in Clacton-on-Sea, England, in October 2014 after the council received complaints that the artwork was offensive.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A Banksy work appears at a youth center in Bristol, England, in April 2014. Called "Mobile Lovers," it features a couple embracing while checking their cell phones. Members of the youth center took down the piece from a wall on a Bristol street and replaced it with a note saying the work was being held at the club "to prevent vandalism or damage being done." The discovery came shortly after another image believed to be by Banksy surfaced in Cheltenham, England.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A boy walks past graffiti street art believed to be by Banksy in April 2014. The image depicts men in trench coats and dark glasses holding old-fashioned listening equipment -- apparently a commentary on government surveillance. The artwork appeared on the side of a house in Cheltenham near the Government Communications Headquarters, the UK equivalent of the National Security Agency.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A set of balloons that reads "BANKSY!" is seen off the Long Island Expressway in Queens, New York, in October 2013. Banksy artwork appeared all over New York that month.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy also offered up a T-shirt design on his website for fans to download and print on their own.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A leopard placed on the wall of New York's Yankee Stadium was revealed in October 2013.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
"The Banality of the Banality of Evil" actually started out as a thrift store painting in New York City. Once altered by Banksy, who inserted an image of a Nazi officer sitting on a bench, it was re-donated to the store in October 2013, according to the artist's site.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy's art exhibit "Grim Reaper Bumper Car" sits on New York's Lower East Side in October 2013. The famously anonymous artist, whose paintings regularly go for six figures at auction houses around the world, said he was on a "residency on the streets of New York."
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A Banksy piece covers the main entrance to Larry Flynt's Hustler Club in New York's Hell's Kitchen in October 2013.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy's replica of the Great Sphinx of Giza was made in Queens out of smashed cinder blocks.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy's "Ghetto 4 Life" appeared in the Bronx in October 2013. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested that Banksy was breaking the law with his guerrilla art exhibits, but the New York Police Department denied it was actively searching for him.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy art is seen on the Upper West Side of New York in October 2013.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy work in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, was vandalized in broad daylight in October 2013.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
One of Banksy's pieces is this fiberglass sculpture of Ronald McDonald having his shoes shined in front of a Bronx McDonald's.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Graffiti depicting the Twin Towers popped up in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York in October 2013.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy's "Sirens of the Lambs" art installation tours the streets of Manhattan in October 2013. It was a fake slaughterhouse delivery truck full of stuffed animals.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy's "Concrete Confessional" is seen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A Banksy mural is seen on a wall in Queens. The quote is from the movie "Gladiator." It says, "What we do in life echoes in eternity."
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A woman poses with Banksy's painting of a heart-shaped balloon covered in bandages. The piece, in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, was defaced with red spray paint shortly after it was completed.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A Banksy mural of a dog urinating on a fire hydrant draws attention
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
This installation, seen in October 2013, on the Lower East Side of New York, depicts stampeding horses in night-vision goggles. Thought to be a commentary on the Iraq War, it also included an audio soundtrack.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Gallery assistants adjust Banksy's "Love Is in the Air" ahead of an auction in London in June 2013. The piece was sold for $248,776.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
"The Crayola Shooter" is found in Los Angeles in 2011. It shows a child wielding a machine gun and using crayons for bullets.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
People walk past a Banksy painting of a dog urinating on a wall in Beverly Hills, California, in 2011.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Banksy murals popped up around New Orleans a day before the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in 2008.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A silhouette of a child holding a refrigerator-shaped kite is seen on a wall in New Orleans in 2008.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
Graffiti on the side of a building in New Orleans shows an elderly person in a rocking chair under the banner, "No Loitering," in 2008.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A scene titled "Chicken Nuggets," from Banksy's "The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill," is seen in New York in 2008.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A man walks past a Banksy piece in London in 2006.
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Photos: Banksy, the elusive street artist
A stenciled image of two policemen kissing is seen in London in 2005.
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Banksy releases image for Syria conflict 01:36
As the celebrated artist sent his fans out on a treasure hunt, one devotee said she found the piece using Flickr and Google Street View.
"I was so excited, I popped down there and took a couple of photos ... but didn't tweet them because it's only held on with screws and I was worried the first person to go there would be a thief," Banksy fan Sally was quoted as saying by Britain's BBC.
Bristol is where Banksy's art first appeared more than 20 years ago.
Secret agents
On Monday, Bristol Mayor George Ferguson welcomed the appearance of the image.
"It's good to see another witty Banksy raid on his home city -- respectfully painted in a blocked up doorway," he said. "I hope it will be respected and protected as we would want for any other legitimate work of street art."
The discovery of the new artwork came after another piece, believed to be a Banksy, was found in the provincial English spa town of Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire.
Clad in brown trench coats, dark glasses and trilby hats, what appear to be three secret agents huddle around a payphone box with listening equipment.
The image -- apparently a comment on the issue of government surveillance -- appeared early Sunday, local media said, on a house wall.
The location may be a reference to the town's role as host to Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, known as GCHQ -- the UK equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency.
Banksy's last high-profile project was a month-long street art "residency" in New York City.
Each day of October, Banksy unveiled new works of art around New York. The works were then announced on his website and posted to Instagram. Many of the surprise exhibits followed his signature street-art style: stencils spray-painted on streets, walls of buildings and under bridges.
