2 men charged with stealing a famous Banksy image from a London art gallery

LONDON (AP) — Two males have been charged with housebreaking over the theft of an art work by road artist Banksy from a London gallery, police mentioned Friday.

The Metropolitan Police pressure mentioned Larry Fraser, 47, and James Love, 53, are alleged to have taken “Woman with Balloon” from the Grove Gallery on Sunday evening.

The suspects appeared at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court docket on Thursday and had been ordered detained till their subsequent listening to on Oct. 9.

Police say they’ve recovered the work, which is valued in court docket paperwork at 270,000 kilos ($355,000).

The stolen work is considered one of a number of variations of “Woman with Balloon,” a stenciled picture of a kid reaching for a heart-shaped pink balloon. Initially stenciled on a wall in east London, the image has been endlessly reproduced, turning into considered one of Banksy’s best-known pictures.

One other model partially self-destructed throughout a 2018 public sale, passing by means of a shredder hidden in its body simply after it was bought for 1.1 million kilos ($1.4 million) at Sotheby’s.

The self-shredded work, retitled “Love is within the Bin,” bought for 18.6 million kilos ($25.4 million on the time) in 2021.

Bansky, who has by no means confirmed his full identification, started his profession spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England, and has turn into one of many world’s best-known artists. His mischievous and sometimes satirical pictures embody two policemen kissing, armed riot police with yellow smiley faces and a chimpanzee with an indication bearing the phrases, “Snigger now, however sooner or later I’ll be in cost.”

His work and installations promote for thousands and thousands of {dollars} at public sale and have drawn thieves and vandals.

This summer time a sequence of animal-themed stencils confirmed up round London. One in all them, a howling wolf on a satellite tv for pc dish, was eliminated by a masked man lower than an hour after it was confirmed as genuine. A picture of a gorilla at London Zoo and piranhas in a police sentry field in London’s monetary district had been each eliminated by the authorities for safekeeping.