Eight people have been arrested over the theft of a mural by the elusive British street artist Banksy Ukrainian authorities said that from a wall on the outskirts of Kyiv.
They said a stencil image of a person in a nightgown and gas mask holding a fire extinguisher, next to the charred remains of a window in the town of Hostomel, disappeared on Friday.
A group of people tried to steal a Banksy mural. They cut work on the wall of a house destroyed by the Russians, said the Kyiv governor, Oleksiy Kuleba, in a message on Telegram.
I am attaching a picture of a hole in the wall where the picture was standing.
“Several people were arrested on the spot,” he said. “The picture is in good condition and in the hands of the authorities.”
He said other works in the area believed to be Banksy’s work are under police protection.
Kyiv police chief Andrei Nepetov said eight people potentially involved had been identified and a preliminary investigation had been launched.
They ranged in age from 27 to 60. He said they were residents of Kyiv and Cherkassy, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of the capital.
Last month, Banksy posted a stencil image of a gymnast performing a handstand on the wall of a wrecked building in Borodyanka, northwest of the capital.
He then posted a video of several of his artworks, including a figure in a gas mask holding a fire extinguisher.
Other images included images of a bearded man rubbing against a bathtub, and a young boy in a karate uniform slamming his adult opponent to the ground.
Along with towns like Bucha and Irbin, Borodyanka and Hostomel were heavily bombed by the Russians after the invasion of Ukraine in feb.
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