Banksy's stolen work "The Sad Girl" found in Italy

The door to the Bataclan painted by Banksy was found in a country house in Abruzzo. Ufficio Stampa Carabinieri / Handout via REUTERS

Text by: RFI Follow

During a joint operation, Italian riflemen and French police found on Wednesday June 10 in a country house located in Sant 'Omero, in the Abruzzo region, a work by Banksy stolen on January 26, 2019. The British star of street art had painted it in 2018 on an emergency door of the Bataclan in tribute to the victims of the jihadist attacks of November 13, 2015.

Publicity

Read more

With our correspondent in Rome, Anne Le Nir

The mystery of the theft of the work attributed to Banksy is still far from being solved. During the press conference, organized by the parquet floor of L'Aquila, the prosecutor Michele Renzo did not explain precisely how the joint judicial investigation between France and Italy made it possible to recover the painted door, intact, in the attic of a country house in Abruzzo.

Thanks to our intelligence work, we arrived at this house, inhabited by Chinese people unrelated to this case, but whom we knew was the property of a suspect,  " said the prosecutor.

For his part, police commander Christophe Cengig, in charge at the French Embassy in Rome of the fight against organized crime, who participated in the operation to recover the work, spoke of relief, and d emotion for his colleagues from France, including a policeman who intervened at Bataclan during the jihadist attack. The investigation is still ongoing, both on the Italian and French sides.

Newsletter Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Italy
  • Arts
  • Justice

On the same subject

Culture

"The scar of Bethlehem", shocking new work by street artist Banksy

United Kingdom / Environment / Culture

UK: artist Banksy embraces the cause of Extinction Rebellion?

Japan

Possible Banksy work in Tokyo moves Japanese people