A person has been arrested on suspicion of stealing a brand new Banksy art work, the Metropolitan Police have mentioned.

The alleged theft occurred lower than an hour after Banksy claimed possession of the set up, that includes a “cease” site visitors signal emblazoned with 3D battle planes, was unveiled in Peckham, South London on Friday (December 22).

Two males with bolt cutters had been caught on digital camera eradicating the art work at round 12:30pm, with one standing on the seat of a Lime bike to succeed in it, in entrance of quite a few onlookers.

The Met have mentioned that the arrested man stays in custody and investigations are ongoing.

The deputy Chief of Southwark Council, Jasmine Ali, mentioned the art work “mustn’t have been eliminated”, including: “We’d prefer it again so everybody locally can take pleasure in Banksy’s good work.” [via The Independent]

Whereas unconfirmed, it’s believed that the anti-war art work pertains to the present Israel-Palestine battle, significantly given Banksy’s lengthy historical past of making artwork associated to the continued tensions there. In 2005, he created quite a few artworks on the Palestinian facet of the West Financial institution Wall, which separated Palestine from Israel. Ten years later, he created road artwork in Gaza by including his trademark stencils to items of rubble in what is taken into account a few of his most provocative art work up to now.

Final 12 months, Banksy additionally created seven new murals in varied areas throughout Ukraine, significantly areas which had been badly impacted by the Russian invasion.

This isn’t the primary event on which a chunk he has created has confronted the specter of theft. In December 2022, eight folks had been detained by Ukrainian authorities over the tried theft of a Banksy mural from a constructing in Hostomel close to Kyiv.

In the meantime, it transpired that Banksy had seemingly revealed his actual identify in a newly unearthed interview from 2003.

Banksy – who first had his identify printed in a report from The Unbiased – confirmed his identify for the primary time, as revealed through a press launched shared by the BBC.

Wrench requested if he may use Banksy’s actual identify within the interview, citing that The Unbiased had already used it, asking the artist to substantiate if his identify was Robert Banks. “It’s Robbie,” Banksy clarified.