The highly secretive British street artist Banksy announced on social media in November that he was in Ukraine, to show his support for the embattled nation through seven murals. One showed a girl gymnast standing on her hands in the middle of a pile of rubble. Another, an old man who took a bath in a bombed-out block of flats. A third featured a small boy throwing a grown man to the ground during a judo match, a clear reference to the judo-loving Russian president. The fourth picture was of a lady standing on a chair, wearing a gas mask, and with the fire extinguisher ready. The street painting that before that tried to steal from the wall in Hostomel. Photo: GENYA SAVILOV / AFP Yesterday, the painting of the lady was attempted to be stolen. A gang tried to cut off the outermost part of the wall on the wall, in order to take the lady with them, the governor of the Kyiv region, Oleksij Kuleba, told the Reuters news agency. Unfortunately for the perpetrators, they were observed and the police notified. They were thus caught red-handed and the police took over the carved piece of wall. The governor states that the mural is undamaged and is now with the police. – These paintings are the last in a series of symbols of our fight against the enemy. We will do everything to preserve these graffiti works, as a symbol of our victory, Oleksij Kuleba told Reuters. One of the most symbolic images was painted on a ruin in the village of Borodjanka. The image of the bathing man was painted on the wall of a bombed-out apartment block in the village of Gorenka, which is just outside the capital. The image of the balancing woman can also be seen in Borodjanka. Photo: Andrew Kravchenko / AP Banksy has also chosen to draw a girl doing rhythmic gymnastics. Photo: BANKSY / Reuters A small boy and girl adorn a roadblock in the capital Kyiv. The artist few know who he is The British artist – whose real identity no one knows – is the world’s most famous graffiti artist. At auction, some of the artworks have gone for over NOK 100 million. The paintings often have a political message combined with a slightly irreverent humour. In 2019, a large Banksy painting depicting British politicians as chimpanzees in the British Parliament was sold for just over NOK 111 million at a Sotheby’s auction in London. It was probably NOK 100 million more than the previous price record, which was set the year before. But the buyer, who had paid NOK 11 million, was shocked to see that the picture “Girl with Balloon” shredded itself through a mechanism hidden in the frame. Regional police chief Andrij Nebytov stands in front of the picture that was cut out of the wall. For the time being, it is being kept at the police station. Photo: VALENTYN OGIRENKO / Reuters Run away using an emergency exit door It is not the first time Bansky has gone to conflict areas to show his solidarity. Murals by the Briton can be found both in Bethlehem and in Jerusalem, as well as in big cities such as New York, Paris and London. Nor is it the first time someone has attempted to steal a Banksy work. In 2019, a door to an emergency exit in the Bataclan concert venue was stolen. Banksy had painted a grieving girl on the door. The girl was painted on one of the emergency exits in the concert hall where militant Islamists killed 90 people during a concert on the evening of 13 November 2015. The door image was found again the following year on an uninhabited farm in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Eight people have been sentenced for the theft. On 14 July 2020, French ambassador Christian Masset (th) and Italian prosecutor Michele Renzo presented the stolen Banksy picture from the Bataclan concert venue which was found again in Italy. Photo: Domenico Stinellis / AP
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Banksy painting was carved from the wall – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
