Kyiv’s General Prosecutor’s Office has filed a case against the thief of a Banksy mural. In early December, the man and several accomplices cut a picture of the British street artist from a wall in the Kiev suburb of Hostomel. The procedure is aimed exclusively at the man for burglary under martial law, the official said. He now faces up to twelve years in prison.
“Aware of the value of the work, he planned to sell the graffiti and dispose of the money received at his own discretion,” the Attorney General’s Office said today. “For that, he brought men who were unaware of his intentions, who he assured had all the necessary licenses to dismantle the mural”.
At the time, residents watched as a photo of a woman in a bathrobe with curlers, gas mask and fire extinguisher was being cut out of the wall and called the police. The image was confiscated, the Ministry of Culture wants to decide on the future fate of the work.
Banksy’s identity is unknown. In November it became known that the artist left several works in the Kyiv suburbs affected by the Russian war of aggression and in the Ukrainian capital itself.