“Day of Judgment,” by Laura Ford. (Paul Hudson / CC BY 2.0)

Business Insider reported Tuesday that “mysterious, insulting statues of ‘rat bankers’ have appeared in the City of London,” with no indication as to who made them. The question, the publication pondered, is who exactly is being insulted: the bankers who robbed the world blind without qualms or the rodents?

The mystery was resolved Wednesday, when the publication claimed to have solved the puzzle.

From Business Insider:

Statues that appear to depict bankers as black rats in the City of London are actually statues of cats.

The installation is Laura Ford’s Days of Judgment and it’s part of the City of London’s Sculpture in the City event. … There wasn’t a placard from the artist claiming credit, or title, when we first saw them yesterday. Just a sign saying “Please do not climb.”

They’re right in the middle of a cluster of bank offices and branches on Bishopsgate, outside the Deutsche Bank office and across from branches of HSBC and Lloyds – and a two minute walk from the Bank of England.

Read more.

Be they rats or cats, the statues seem to serve more as a Rorschach test than an art installation.

—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata

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