An artwork by British graffiti artist Banksy that was stolen last year from the Bataclan music hall in Paris has been found by police in central Italy.
The work was an image of a girl in mourning, painted on one of the emergency doors of the famed venue in the French capital, where 90 people were killed in the November 13, 2015, Paris attacks. It had been cut out and taken in 2019.
“We have recovered the door stolen in the Bataclan with a Banksy work portraying a sad young girl,” a senior Italian police officer told AFP in Teramo, adding the raid was conducted with French police.
The work was found in an abandoned farmhouse in the Abruzzo region, according to l’Aquila prosecutor Michele Renzo, who said further details would be provided at a press conference on Thursday.
The theft of Banksy’s white stencilled, mourning girl sparked shock in France, with the Bataclan management expressing its “deep indignation” that the artwork, “a symbol of recollection and belonging to all: locals, Parisians, citizens of the world” had been “taken from us”.
