Get Out While You Can is one of Banksy’s best-known “Placard Rat” prints, created in 2004. It depicts one of his trademark rats holding up a sign bearing the work’s title. The piece forms part of a trilogy, alongside Because I’m Worthless and Welcome to Hell, each using the placard format to deliver blunt, ironic slogans.

Banksy’s rats have long been symbols of the overlooked and the oppressed creatures surviving on the margins of society, yet resilient and defiant. As he wrote in his 2005 book Wall and Piece:

“If you are dirty, insignificant and unloved, then rats are the ultimate role model.”

The motif also pays homage to French stencil pioneer Blek le Rat, whose work in the 1980s popularised the rodent as an urban icon. For Get Out While You Can, 75 signed and 175 unsigned screenprints were released in pink and red colourways, making it a highly recognisable example of Banksy’s satirical printmaking.