The council of Central London district of Southwark said on Saturday it had submitted an application to the police, asking them to find and put back a removed traffic stop sign with graffiti by UK artist Banksy.
On Friday, two men removed the stop sign depicting drones from a post in South London, less than an hour after Banksy confirmed the authorship, media reported. The police said they would not investigate the incident as no one had reported the theft at the time.
“It [the sign] should not have been removed and we’d like it back so everyone in the community can enjoy Banksy’s brilliant work. We have reported the removal of our sign to the police to help get it back,” the council’s deputy leader, Jasmine Ali, was quoted as saying by the Sky News broadcaster.
Banksy, whose true identity is still shrouded in mystery, has been active since the 1990s and is widely regarded as an artist who changed the mass perception of street art. The artist’s works, which draw attention to political, military, capitalist, moral and other issues, are usually removed along with the wall or visible surface on which they were painted. Banksy’s work has repeatedly gone under the hammer for millions of dollars.
