Banksy’s latest work was stolen within hours of its unveiling, the BBC reported on Thursday. The street artist has been spreading his new animal collection across London since Monday.
On Monday, graffiti of a mountain goat with its hooves sliding under its feet appeared near Kew Bridge. On Tuesday, in the southwest London district of Chelsea, the silhouettes of two elephants stretching their trunks out to each other could be seen on a house. A day later, three swinging monkeys appeared on a bridge over the famous Brick Lane in the East End.
On Thursday, a howling wolf was placed on top of a building in Peckham, in the city’s south-east, painted on what appears to be a satellite dish.
A few hours later, an object resembling a TV antenna with a silhouette of a wolf was stolen. The BBC reported that the perpetrators were three men who, using a ladder, took down Banksy’s latest work and took it away. The BBC also published a video showing the moment of the theft by masked perpetrators, recorded by a witness.
Banksy’s press team told the BBC they “believed” the work had been stolen, a claim confirmed to Reuters by London’s Metropolitan Police, which said the Banksy piece was reported stolen within hours of its unveiling.
Banksy, whose identity remains a mystery, is a Bristol-based street artist whose work appears on the streets of London and other places around the world. (PAP)
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