Man suspected of stealing Banksy artwork arrested in London, police say

A person in his 20s was in custody on suspicion of theft and legal harm, the Metropolitan police mentioned.

The signal was taken lower than an hour after the elusive road artist posted a photograph of the work on his Instagram web page Friday.

Video confirmed a person with bolt cutters climbing up on a bicycle to take away the work from an indication publish on a road nook within the Peckham space of south London whereas one other man steadied the bike. The person who minimize the signal free then ran off with it in his hand.

A voice on a video of the incident could possibly be heard saying, “it makes me so irritated,” as the person ran away.

A witness who solely needed to be known as Alex informed the PA information company that the small crowd of those who had proven as much as view the work stood round watching in awe because the scene unfolded.

“We mentioned, ‘What are you doing? However nobody actually knew what to do, we form of simply watched it occur,” Alex mentioned. “We had been all a bit bemused; there was some honking of automobile horns.”

Jasmine Ali, deputy chief of the native borough council, known as for the piece to be returned.

“It shouldn’t have been eliminated and we’d prefer it again so everybody in the neighborhood can take pleasure in Banksy’s good work,” Ali mentioned.

The cease signal was changed.

Banksy’s thought-provoking and satirical artwork typically takes intention at conflict. A lot of his followers on Instagram interpreted the work as calling for a cease-fire within the Gaza Strip.