Neighbours foil attempt to steal Banksy wall in New Orleans

AP

Neighbours in New Orleans foiled what police say was an attempt to steal a chunk of cinderblock wall bearing a painting created by the world-renowned graffiti artist Banksy.

The building’s owner called police on Friday evening, saying someone was attempting to cut out the painting, which Banksy had created after Hurricane Katrina, said Officer Garry Flot, a police spokesman. By the time of that call, he said, the two suspects were gone and the mural, known locally as Umbrella Girl or Rain Girl, was still there. The painting and the long holes that had been cut around it are now shielded by plywood.

The mural is among more than a dozen made in 2008 in New Orleans by the elusive British artist, who is perhaps the world’s best-known street artist. Banksy’s works have sold at auction for as much as Dh4 million. He came to New Orleans as Hurricane Gustav was heading toward Louisiana. The images he left were generally related to the 2005 hurricane, Katrina. Well known in New Orleans, they have been the subject of news articles in the past.

Many have since been painted over or destroyed. This one shows a mournful girl holding an umbrella from which rain pours onto her as she extends a cupped hand into the open air around her.

Word of activity at the site appeared Friday afternoon on Facebook, with pictures showing a wide gap above the painting. The work was going on behind a plywood screen.

Photographer Cheryl Gerber had noticed the plywood hiding the painting not far from her house earlier in the day while driving home from an assignment. She asked a man sitting at the back of a nearby rental truck what was going on.

“He said, ‘Oh, the picture is going to London for a big show,”’ she recounted.

She got home and posted a photo with the message, “Bye Bye Banksy! My neighborhood’s most famous little girl is moving to London.”

Clay Lapeyrouse was alarmed when he saw a Facebook picture of the activity.

“It just didn’t add up to me. The whole scenario seemed off,” Lapeyrouse, operations manager at Louisiana Fresh Produce, said.

It was his day off, so he went to take a look for himself.

When he asked to see a permit for work on the vacant building, the two men could not provide one. They told him the building’s owners wanted to send the painting to a museum. “They couldn’t tell me who the owner was or the name of the museum,” Lapeyrouse said.

“I left and came back and called the police and called every authority I could think of in the city,” he said.

Tate spokeswoman Jeanette Ward told The Associated Press in an email that there “are currently no plans announced to include the work of Banksy in an exhibition.”