Six people were arrested and detained in connection with the investigation into the theft of Banksy’s work, which had been painted on an exit door from the Bataclan room in Paris. These six people were arrested Tuesday, June 23 in Isère, Haute-Savoie, Var, Rhône and Puy-de-Dôme during an operation led by the direction of the judicial police of Paris (DCPJ) in charge of the open investigation for aggravated theft. Two of them were charged with the chief of theft in an organized band and the other four for concealment of theft in an organized band, according to judicial and police sources at AFP. All six were placed in pre-trial detention.
This painting, a tribute to the victims of the November 2015 attacks in Paris, had been stolen in 2019 and recovered in early June by Italian police on a farm in Abruzzo. This work, called “The sad girlIs a white paint stencil depicting a sad-looking female character. The Italian police operation was initiated at the request of the French police and carried out in the presence of French police. “The work was found under a roof, in an attic, leaning against a wall. So not optimal conditions, but (…) in good conditionHad said Colonel Emanuele Mazzotta, commander of the Alba Adriatica carabinieri who had taken part in the search. «Clearly the occupants of the house – a Chinese couple and their family – seem completely foreign to the case“, He added.
The work had been stolen in January 2019, with the door on which it was painted, cut out with a grinder.
This theft had caused “deep indignationIn the words of the Bataclan team. This “symbol of meditation and belonging to all, residents, Parisians, citizens of the world has been taken from us“, She lamented then, in a country deeply marked by the Islamist attacks of 2015.
British artist – whose identity is a well-kept mystery – had claimed authorship of this work on his Instagram account.
See also – Banksy: the work in tribute to the victims of the Bataclan found in Italy and revealed to the press
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