Local authorities said Ukrainian police thwarted an attempt on Friday to steal a work attributed to the famous British artist Banksy and painted on a wall in the Kiev area.
“On Friday in Gostomel, some people tried to steal a drawing of Banksy. They cut through the walls of a house that was destroyed by the Russians,” Kiev regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said in a message posted on Telegram.
He also posted a photograph showing the part of the cut wall where the artifact stood: an image of a person in a bathrobe and gas mask standing in a chair, holding a fire extinguisher next to the burnt remains of a window. The city of Gostomel.
“Many people were detained at the scene. The drawing is in good condition and in the hands of the authorities,” Kuleba said.
“Eight people have been identified,” said Andriy Nebitov, chief of the Kiev district police.
The suspects are “between 27 and 60 years old, living in Kiev and Cherkassy,” a city located 200 kilometers southeast of the capital.
In mid-November, Banksy posted photos of a work painted on a bombed-out building in the Kiev suburb of Borodianka, which has become a symbol of Russian atrocities, on his Instagram account as a way to confirm that it is the author himself.
At the beginning of October, several works in the style of Banksy appeared in and around Kiev.
Kuleba said that the British artist’s works in the Kiev region are “under police protection.”
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© Agence France-Presse
source: Noticias
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.