The Center Pompidou said it filed a complaint for "theft and degradation, within a space within its scope".

The Pompidou Center announced on Tuesday that it "noticed the theft" of a work of the famous street-artist Banksy, "made on the reverse side of the entrance panel" of its underground car park. The Center Pompidou said in a statement to have "filed a complaint today Tuesday, September 3, for theft and degradation, within a space within its scope." *

# Banksypic.twitter.com / voiJ9QsDuT

- Pompidou Center (@CentrePompidou) September 3, 2019

The work represents a rat with a masked muzzle waving a pencil. The stencil "appeared on June 25, 2018 and claimed the next day on the Instagram account of the artist," says the Center Pompidou. "It is assumed that the metal panel was cut with saws.We are not the owner of the work, that's why we complain for degradation," said the communication service Center Pompidou.

A first attempt at degradation or theft took place in 2018

This stencil is accompanied by the legend "Fifty years since the uprising in Paris 1968. The birthplace of modern stencil art" ("Fifty years since the riots of 1968 in Paris, the cradle of the art of stencil"). The Pompidou Center recalls that shortly after its completion, it "decided to protect this stencil by affixing a plate of Plexiglas". "A first attempt at degradation or theft was halted in July 2018 by the security agents of the Center Pompidou, doing their round around the building," says the cultural center.

Works by the mysterious British street-artist are regularly stolen. An AFP journalist noted the disappearance of a stencil depicting a man, hiding a saw behind his back and giving a bone to a dog - who lacks a paw, rue Victor Cousin, in the 5th district of Paris . This work also appeared in June 2018, like the stencil located near the Pompidou Center.

A work attributed to Banksy on a back door of the Bataclan, "tribute to the victims of 13/11" had been stolen end of January. "The work of Banksy, a symbol of meditation and belonging to everyone, residents, Parisians, citizens of the world was taken away," denounced at the time The Bataclan, where 90 people were killed on November 13, 2015 at the time. terrorist attack that struck Saint-Denis and Paris.