Eight men found guilty of stealing Banksy artwork from Paris attack site

Eight men found guilty of stealing Banksy artwork from Paris attack siteEight people found guilty by French court on Thursday of stealing Banksy of the famous Bataclan concert hall in Paris

by Agence France-Presse

24-06-2022 18:00

in Art and Artists

Photo taken on 11 June, 2020 A policeman stands guard near a piece of art attributed to Banksy, that was stolen at the Bataclan in Paris in 2019, and found in Italy, ahead of a press conference in L'Aquila. The Paris court will hand down on 23 June, 2022 the verdict for the seven French defendants and one Italian suspected of removing the metal door of the Bataclan concert venue in Paris where was painted the Banksy artwork, honouring 90 people killed in the 2015 terror attacks, from the building before dawn in January 2019 and transporting it to Italy. The work was found in an abandoned farmhouse in Abruzzo, l'Aquila prosecutor informed on 10 June, 2020. Photo: Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP

A French court on Thursday convicted eight men for the theft and handling of a Banksy painting paying homage to the victims of the 2015 attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris.

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Three men in their 30s who admitted to the 2019 theft were given prison sentences, one of four years and two of three, although they will be able to serve them wearing electronic tracking bracelets rather than behind bars.

Another man, a 41-year-old millionaire lottery winner and street art fan accused of being the mastermind of the heist, was given three years in jail for handling stolen goods after judges found the main allegation unproven. His sentence will also be served with a bracelet.

Elsewhere in the capital, the defence was making its final arguments in the trial of the surviving suspects in the 2015 Paris attacks themselves, with a verdict expected on 29 June.

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Acted like vultures' WHILE STEALING BANKSY ARTWORK British street artist Banksy painted his sad girl stencil on the metal door of the Bataclan in memory of the 90 people killed there on 13 November 2015.

A white van with concealed numberplates was seen stopping on 26 January, 2019 in an alleyway running alongside the central Paris music venue.

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Many concertgoers fled via the same alley when the Bataclan became the focal point of France's worst ever attacks since World War II, as Islamic State group jihadists killed 130 people at a string of sites across the capital.

On the morning of the theft, three masked men climbed out of the van, cut the hinges with angle grinders powered by a generator and left within 10 minutes, in what an investigating judge called a meticulously prepared heist.

Prosecutor Valerie Cadignan told the court earlier this month that the perpetrators had not sought to debase the memory of the attack victims, but being aware of the priceless value of the door were looking to make a profit .

acted like vultures, like people who steal objects without any respect for what they might represent .

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DEEP INDIGNATION' During the trial, Bataclan staff said the theft sparked deep indignation , adding that the painted door was a symbol of remembrance that belongs to everyone, locals, Parisians, citizens of the world .

Investigators pieced together the door's route across France and into Italy, where it was found in June 2020 on a farm in Sant'Omero, near the Adriatic coast.

Three men involved in transporting the door were each jailed for 10 months, while a 58-year-old Italian man who owns a hotel where it was temporarily stored received a six-month suspended sentence.

Agence France-Presse

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