Council calls police in hunt for stolen Banksy piece | UK News

A London council hopes police can help it recover a Banksy artwork stolen from within an hour of it going up.

The installation – three aircraft resembling military drones on a stop sign – was removed by a man with bolt cutters in Peckham not long after an image of it was posted on Banksy’s social media around midday yesterday.

Photos show the thief standing on a an electric Lime bike, being held up by another man, as he brazenly removes the sign, before running off with it.

Southwark Council now says it has reported the incident to the Metropolitan Police.

In a statement released afterward the theft, deputy Leader of Southwark Council, Jasmine Ali said: ‘Of course Banksy picked Peckham, it’s already on the map when it comes to art and is a hotbed for creativity.

‘It should not have been removed and we’d like it back so everyone in the community can enjoy Banksy’s brilliant work.

‘We have reported the removal of our sign to the police to help get it back.’

The Metropolitan Police said it was aware of the incident, which happened at the intersection of Southampton Way and Commercial Way in Peckham.

The force said it is waiting to hear if the local authority want to formally report the incident as a crime.

To ensure road users aren’t put in danger, the stop sign has since been replaced, police added.

Among the people who witnessed the theft was 26-yar-old Alex, who didn’t want to give his surname.

He said: ‘I opened Instagram and I saw it was posted four minutes before and I was about to go on my lunch break.

‘There were about two people there when I got there. We were all sort of admiring it and taking pictures.

‘This guy comes up and grabs it, we watched in awe as he bashed it.

‘He put the Lime bike under the sign, stood on the Lime bike and tried to hit the sign, he hit it with his hands and it wasn’t going anywhere.

‘He fell off the Lime bike at one point. He disappeared and went away and about two minutes later he reappeared with bolt cutters and just sort of tried and tried and tried while everyone was watching.

‘We said, ‘what are you doing?’ but no one really knew what to do, we sort of just watched it happen.

‘We were all a bit bemused, there was some honking of car horns.’

Alex said the man then ‘ripped’ the sign off and ran away.

‘He said nothing. He didn’t seem to care that much about the art itself.

‘There was someone else there but I don’t know if they were together.

‘I went there thinking that people want that, I wanted to see it before something happened to it.’

Another witness, who declined to be named, told Metro the culprit must have lived locally, because ‘he was only gone a few minutes’ to get the bolt-cutters.

He added: ‘A few of us were just stood around watching while he did it. Some people tried shouting at him to stop but he didn’t pay us any attention.

‘There was even a man from Southwark Council sat there in a van but he didn’t appear to be doing anything. He was just there to observe. He even took a few pictures of it himself.’

The photos show a man wearing a red and black jacket using a Lime bike to prop himself up, with one foot placed on the saddle and the other on the handle bars, while the bike is held steady by another man.

It is understood that Banksy is not behind the removal.

The street artists’ works are frequently stolen or removed by local authorities after being revealed to be his.

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