The short video footage shows someone arriving outside the gallery in Westminster, London armed with a large hammer – then a violent break-in ensues before the Banksy artwork is seized
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Thief caught stealing Bansky artwork from Grove Gallery
Thieves breaking into an art gallery to steal a Banksy painting were caught on CCTV.
The short video footage shows someone arriving outside the gallery armed with a large hammer. Dressed all in black, except for white trainers and gloves, they repeatedly hit the glass in the gallery door. When it doesn’t give in they are then seen trying to shoulder barge the glass.
Eventually, the glass gives way and the thief walks through a hole, grabs the painting from the wall and feeds it along with themselves back through the glass in the door. The video lasts around 40 seconds.
Larry Fraser, 47, and James Love, 53, have since been charged with burglary after the iconic painting was stolen from the central London gallery on Sunday, the Metropolitan Police said. The arrests follow an investigation by detectives from the Met’s Flying Squad.
Fraser, of Evelyn Denington Road, Beckton, east London, and Love, of Elvin Drive, North Stifford, appeared at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, 12 September where they were bailed to next appear at Kingston Crown Court on Wednesday, 9 October.
The investigation was launched after a burglary at Grove Gallery in New Cavendish Street, Westminster at around 11pm on Sunday, 8 September. A Banksy painting entitled ‘Girl with balloon’ was the only item stolen. It was later recovered and has been returned to the gallery.
Last month, art by the Bristol-based creator popped up all over London in the space of eight days, with one new piece appearing every day from August 5. The artist confirmed the works were his when he began to upload photos of artwork depicting different types of animals to his Instagram.
The first was of a goat with rocks falling down below it and a CCTV camera pointed at it which was situated on a building near Kew Bridge in southwest London. This was followed by two elephant silhouettes with their trunks stretched out towards each other located on a property near Chelsea.
The next day he continued with three monkeys that looked as though they were swinging on a bridge in east London. On Thursday August 8 Banksy’s fourth piece in the collection, a howling wolf on a satellite dish situated on a roof in Peckham, was taken down less than an hour after the street artist unveiled it online.
After this Banksy unveiled an artwork of pelicans pinching fish from the sign on Bonners Fish Bar in Walthamstow which was praised by local Labour MP Stella Creasy. The collection continued on August 10 with a silhouette of a stretching cat on an empty, distressed advertising hoarding.
The piece was later dismantled by three men who said they were “hired” from a “contracting company” to take down the billboard for safety reasons. A black board was first used to cover the majority of the cat on the billboard at the request of the police, who wanted to stop people walking in the road in front of traffic.
