This work by the British street artist is not the first to be stolen. The theft took place in a London gallery on Sunday.
After self-destructing in 2018, The girl with the balloon Banksy’s famous work has been stolen. Two men have been arrested and charged over the theft of the street artist’s famous work from a London gallery, police said Friday.
An investigation was launched after the theft on Sunday. “around 11:00 p.m.” (22:00 GMT) of this work representing a little girl, dressed in a dress reaching for a red heart-shaped balloon, London police said in a statement.
The work, the only one stolen that evening, “has now been found and will be returned to the gallery”located in west London, police said. The two men arrested have been charged with “theft in a non-residential building” and appeared in court in south London on Thursday. They were released on bail ahead of a further appearance on October 9.
The original graffiti first appeared in 2002 on Waterloo Bridge in south London, and remains one of the most famous pieces by the mysterious Bristol-born artist. In 2018, the artist caused a stir when a copy of The girl with the balloon had partially self-destructed in the middle of an auction.
Banksy, target of recurring thefts
The London artist is regularly the target of thefts. The reason? He produces his creations in public spaces. In June, in Paris, a rat masked by a bandana and armed with a box cutter was stolen. Banksy had created it as a stencil a stone’s throw from the Centre Pompidou, on the back of a road sign indicating the entrance to a car park. Two months later, barely unveiled by Banksy, the wolf howling at the moon on a white satellite dish in London was caught by a witness in the hands of three men who appropriated the work.
Some vandals even go so far as to cut out a piece of wall with the drawing of the invisible artist. This was the case in the 2000s, at the foot of the separation wall between Israel and Palestine, for the painting Slingshot Rat. It reappeared in 2022 in a gallery near the border.