Stolen Banksy honoring Bataclan victims found in Italy
By ANDREA ROSA
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Italian authorities unveil a stolen artwork painted by the British artist Banksy as a tribute to the victims of the 2015 terror attacks at the Bataclan music hall in Paris, during a press conference in L' Aquila, Italy, Thursday June, 11, 2020 . The L’Aquila prosecutors office said the work was recovered on Wednesday during a search of a home in Tortoreto, a city near the Adriatic coast in the Abruzzo region’s Teramo province. (AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)
L’AQUILA, Italy (AP) — Italian authorities on Thursday unveiled a stolen artwork by British artist Banksy that was painted as a tribute to the victims of the 2015 terror attacks at the Bataclan music hall in Paris.
L’Aquila prosecutors said the work was recovered on Wednesday during a search of a home in the countryside of Tortoreto, near the Adriatic coast in the Abruzzo region’s Teramo province. It had been “hidden well” in the attic, prosecutors said.
No arrests have been made.
French officials last year announced the theft of the piece, a black image appearing to depict a person mourning that was painted on one of the Bataclan’s emergency exit doors.
Ninety people were killed at the Bataclan on Nov. 13, 2015, when Islamic extremists invaded the music hall, one of several targets that night in which a total of 130 people died.
Authorities said they were still investigating how the artwork arrived in Italy, and the role of any Italians potentially involved. They said the discovery was the fruit of a joint Italian-French police investigation.
At a news conference Thursday in L’Aquila, a French embassy liaison officer, Maj. Christophe Cengig, said the Bataclan owners were informed that the work had been recovered.
“It belongs to the Bataclan, it belongs to all of France in a sense,” he said. The owners, he added, “were thrilled, very happy.”
L’Aquila Prosecutor Michele Renzo said authorities believed the motivation for the theft was financial, not ideological.
Some Chinese nationals were living in the Tortoreto home, but they appeared unaware that the work was there. Teramo Carabinieri Col. Emanuele Pipola said someone else had access to the attic.
Italian authorities unveil a stolen artwork painted by the British artist Banksy as a tribute to the victims of the 2015 terror attacks at the Bataclan music hall in Paris, during a press conference in L' Aquila, Italy, Thursday June, 11, 2020 . The L’Aquila prosecutors office said the work was recovered on Wednesday during a search of a home in Tortoreto, a city near the Adriatic coast in the Abruzzo region’s Teramo province. (AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)
L’AQUILA, Italy (AP) — Italian authorities on Thursday unveiled a stolen artwork by British artist Banksy that was painted as a tribute to the victims of the 2015 terror attacks at the Bataclan music hall in Paris.
L’Aquila prosecutors said the work was recovered on Wednesday during a search of a home in the countryside of Tortoreto, near the Adriatic coast in the Abruzzo region’s Teramo province. It had been “hidden well” in the attic, prosecutors said.
No arrests have been made.
French officials last year announced the theft of the piece, a black image appearing to depict a person mourning that was painted on one of the Bataclan’s emergency exit doors.
Ninety people were killed at the Bataclan on Nov. 13, 2015, when Islamic extremists invaded the music hall, one of several targets that night in which a total of 130 people died.
Authorities said they were still investigating how the artwork arrived in Italy, and the role of any Italians potentially involved. They said the discovery was the fruit of a joint Italian-French police investigation.
At a news conference Thursday in L’Aquila, a French embassy liaison officer, Maj. Christophe Cengig, said the Bataclan owners were informed that the work had been recovered.
“It belongs to the Bataclan, it belongs to all of France in a sense,” he said. The owners, he added, “were thrilled, very happy.”
L’Aquila Prosecutor Michele Renzo said authorities believed the motivation for the theft was financial, not ideological.
Some Chinese nationals were living in the Tortoreto home, but they appeared unaware that the work was there. Teramo Carabinieri Col. Emanuele Pipola said someone else had access to the attic.
AFP/File / Thomas SAMSONA number of works left around Paris by street artist Banksy during a 2018 visit were subsequently stolen
Italian police said Wednesday they had retrieved a work by famed street artist Banksy commemorating the victims of the November 2015 Paris terror attacks stolen from the Bataclan concert hall.
The work was an image of a girl in mourning painted on one of the emergency doors of the Parisian venue, where Islamic State gunmen massacred 90 people. It had been cut out and taken in 2019.
"We have recovered the door stolen in the Bataclan with a Banksy work portraying a sad young girl," a senior Italian police officer from Teramo, in Italy's central east Abruzzo region, told AFP. The raid was conducted with French police, he added.
The work was found in an abandoned farmhouse in Abruzzo, according to l'Aquila prosecutor Michele Renzo, who said further details would be provided on Thursday.
Works by Banksy, known for their distinctive style, irreverent humour and thought-provoking themes, have been found on walls, buildings and bridges from the West Bank to post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.
At auction, they have sold for more than $1 million.
- Stealing works -
The portion of the Bataclan door is not the only Banksy to have been stolen from Paris.
In 2018, the artist "blitzed" the French capital with murals during a whirlwind trip, which he said was to mark the 50th anniversary of the Paris student uprising of 1968.
After he appeared to authenticate eight of the Paris works on his Instagram account, it did not take long for thieves to strike.
Works stolen included a mural of a businessman in a suit offering a dog a bone, having just sawed the animal's leg off.
Italian police said Wednesday they had retrieved a work by famed street artist Banksy commemorating the victims of the November 2015 Paris terror attacks stolen from the Bataclan concert hall.
The work was an image of a girl in mourning painted on one of the emergency doors of the Parisian venue, where Islamic State gunmen massacred 90 people. It had been cut out and taken in 2019.
"We have recovered the door stolen in the Bataclan with a Banksy work portraying a sad young girl," a senior Italian police officer from Teramo, in Italy's central east Abruzzo region, told AFP. The raid was conducted with French police, he added.
The work was found in an abandoned farmhouse in Abruzzo, according to l'Aquila prosecutor Michele Renzo, who said further details would be provided on Thursday.
Works by Banksy, known for their distinctive style, irreverent humour and thought-provoking themes, have been found on walls, buildings and bridges from the West Bank to post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.
At auction, they have sold for more than $1 million.
- Stealing works -
The portion of the Bataclan door is not the only Banksy to have been stolen from Paris.
In 2018, the artist "blitzed" the French capital with murals during a whirlwind trip, which he said was to mark the 50th anniversary of the Paris student uprising of 1968.
After he appeared to authenticate eight of the Paris works on his Instagram account, it did not take long for thieves to strike.
Works stolen included a mural of a businessman in a suit offering a dog a bone, having just sawed the animal's leg off.
POMPIDOU CENTRE/AFP / -Another Banksy artwork stolen from Paris is this one of a masked rat, which disappeared from outside the Pompidou Centre
Another was an image of a masked rat wielding a box cutter, which disappeared from outside the Pompidou Centre.
Banksy took on the rat as his avatar, a symbol of the vilified and downtrodden, in homage to Paris street artist Blek le Rat. Blek started out in 1968 when a general strike by students and workers brought France to a halt.
Some of the stolen works have since been recovered and fans have covered some of his Paris street art with Plexiglass to protect them.
But one mural of a migrant girl was defaced with blue spray paint shortly after news of its discovery spread on social media.
Banksy is believed to have started out as a graffiti artist in London, although he has kept his identity a secret.
The most dramatic of his Paris 2018 creations was a pastiche of Jacques-Louis David's "Napoleon Crossing the Alps", with Bonaparte wrapped in a red niqab. It appeared on a wall in an ethnically mixed district of northern Paris.
Another was an image of a masked rat wielding a box cutter, which disappeared from outside the Pompidou Centre.
Banksy took on the rat as his avatar, a symbol of the vilified and downtrodden, in homage to Paris street artist Blek le Rat. Blek started out in 1968 when a general strike by students and workers brought France to a halt.
Some of the stolen works have since been recovered and fans have covered some of his Paris street art with Plexiglass to protect them.
But one mural of a migrant girl was defaced with blue spray paint shortly after news of its discovery spread on social media.
Banksy is believed to have started out as a graffiti artist in London, although he has kept his identity a secret.
The most dramatic of his Paris 2018 creations was a pastiche of Jacques-Louis David's "Napoleon Crossing the Alps", with Bonaparte wrapped in a red niqab. It appeared on a wall in an ethnically mixed district of northern Paris.
