Two men have been charged with burglary after a Banksy painting was stolen from a London art gallery.
Larry Fraser, 47 and of Evelyn Denington Road in Beckton, and James Love, 53 and of Elvin Drive in North Stifford, were charged on Wednesday and remanded in custody by the Metropolitan Police.
An investigation was launched by the force’s flying squad after the artwork was taken from a gallery in New Cavendish Street, in central London, at around 11pm on Sunday.
The ‘Girl with Balloon’ painting – one of the most well-known by the street artist – was the only item stolen and has since been recovered. It will be returned to the gallery, the Met said.
The pair appeared at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court on Thursday and were bailed to next appear at Kingston Crown Court on 9 October.
One version of the ‘Girl with Balloon’ series was the artwork which famously self-destructed moments after it sold for £1 million at Sotheby’s auction house in 2018.
The anonymous artist defended the stunt at the time using a quote from Picasso: “The urge to destroy is also a creative urge.”
Banksy has recently been in the headlines after spraying nine animal silhouettes onto the streets of London over the month of August.
A mural of a goat perched on top of a wall in Richmond was the first of the animal series to pop up in the capital.
The fourth image, a silhouette of a wolf painted on a satellite dish, was stolen within hours of appearing in Peckham, south-east London.
The meaning behind the murals was revealed as simply intending to inject some fun and lightheartedness into summer, at a time when much of the news was dark and bleak.
The latest art series from Banksy followed criticism of his small boat artwork filled with migrant dummies at Glastonbury Festival earlier in the summer.