Two men have been charged with burglary after a Banksy painting was stolen from a London gallery on Sunday, the Metropolitan Police said.
Larry Fraser, 47, and James Love, 53, were charged with non-residential burglary and remanded in police custody.
An investigation was launched after a burglary at a gallery in New Cavendish Street, west London, at around 11pm on Sunday.
The painting, entitled Girl With Balloon, was the only item stolen and it has now been recovered and will be returned to the gallery, police said.
Fraser, of Evelyn Denington Road, Beckton, east London, and Love, of Elvin Drive, North Stifford, appeared at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court on Thursday where they were bailed ahead of appearing at Kingston Crown Court on October 9.
According to court documents, the pair allegedly entered Grove Gallery as trespassers and stole “Girl With Balloon print to the value of £270,000”.
Girl With Balloon is a series of artworks, with the piece at the west London gallery one of multiple versions.
Another version of the painting hit the headlines in 2018 when it partially self-destructed at the conclusion of an auction in which it had been sold for £1.1 million.
The canvas was passed through a secret shredder hidden inside the large frame, leaving the bottom half in tatters and only a solitary red balloon left on a white background in the frame.
The partially-shredded piece, entitled Love Is In The Bin, was sold for £18,582,000 in London by auction house Sotheby’s in October 2021.
Earlier this summer, several pieces in Banksy’s animal-themed series were moved for safekeeping, with one defaced just hours after it went up.
Banksy’s silhouette of a howling wolf on a satellite dish in Peckham was taken less than an hour after it was confirmed as authentic.
Another piece in his collection, a silhouette of a rhino, was defaced by a man wearing a black balaclava just hours after it went up.
His piece at London Zoo, which shows a gorilla lifting up a shutter and allowing a number of birds and a seal to escape, was removed for “safekeeping” and replaced with a replica in August.
Banksy’s artwork of piranhas in a police sentry box was moved temporarily to Guildhall Yard to keep it safe, the City of London Corporation announced after the piece appeared on Ludgate Hill.
A representative for Banksy declined to comment.
