(Paris) Can graffiti be worth fortunes or do they have “no value”, as some “street art” purists profess? French justice examined these questions on Monday, through the case of a man tried for the theft in 2019 of a work by Banksy painted on the back of a road sign.
For the defendant, Mejdi R., 38 years old, a musician artist who admits his participation in the facts, “the graffiti in the street has no value”.
And if he stole this drawing, made on the back of a large sign indicating the entrance to a parking lot, in the center of Paris, it was at the request of its author, the thirty-year-old affirmed in court.
The famous British street artist would have wanted to prevent others from appropriating or profiting from his work and also “denounce the hypocrisy of the capitalist system which says which work has value and which does not”.
PHOTO GEOFF CADDICK, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
A person photographs a mural created by British artist Banksy titled “Aachoo!!! “.
The defendant therefore believes that he did not “stole cultural property”, but only “participated in the damage to a metal plate”. But he cannot provide any proof of a request that Banksy made to him in this regard – which is normal according to him since the artist values his anonymity.
Mejdi R. said he acted with a “team” sent by Banksy himself, a team which would then have returned to England with the work, representing a rat equipped with a knife.
The defendant, who says he has already met Banksy and is his “friend”, claims to have received nothing in return for his “help”.
For the representative of the prosecution Pierre-Alain Abadia, the thesis of a theft sponsored by the artist is not based on any objective element and was even denied by Banksy, via a press officer.
This is not the first time that French justice has looked into the theft of a work by Banksy: in June 2022, eight men were sentenced in Paris to six-month sentences suspended to two years in prison for having stolen or transported to Italy a Bataclan door decorated with a painting by the British artist, in tribute to the victims of the attacks of November 13, 2015.
In this new case, the prosecution requested 18 months in prison, 10 of which were suspended, and a fine of 50,000 euros. The Paris criminal court will deliver its decision on June 19.