A man suspected of stealing a Banksy artwork depicting a red stop sign decorated with three military drones was arrested on Saturday, London police said.
He was taken into custody on suspicion of theft and criminal damage, the Metropolitan Police said.
The sign was taken less than an hour after the elusive street artist posted a photo of the work on his Instagram page on Friday.
The video showed a man equipped with bolt cutters climbing onto a bicycle to remove work from a road sign on a street corner in the Peckham area of south London, while another man steadied the bike. The man who cut the sign then ran away holding it in his hand.
A voice on video of the incident could be heard saying, “This annoys me so much,” as the man ran away.
A witness who only wanted to be called Alex told the Press Association that the small crowd of people who had turned up to view the artwork stood there watching the scene unfold.
The crowd reportedly asked the man what he was doing, but no one knew what to do, Alex said.
“We kind of just watched it happen,” he said. We were all a little perplexed; there were car horns. »
The Metropolitan Police have appealed for help from anyone with information about the reported theft. No arrests had been made as of late Saturday afternoon.
The deputy head of the local borough council, Jasmine Ali, called for the work to be returned.
“It should not have been removed and we would like it to be returned so that everyone in the community can enjoy Banksy’s brilliant work,” Ms Ali said.
The stop sign has been replaced.
Banksy’s satirical and provocative art often aims at war. Many of his followers on Instagram interpreted this work as a call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.