An activist who removed a mural by reclusive British street artist Banksy from a war-ravaged building in a Kiev suburb faces a 10-year prison sentence for theft, Ukrainian authorities said in a statement posted on Facebook.
The mural, which shows a woman in a bathrobe, wearing a gas mask and holding a fire extinguisher, attracted a lot of attention when it appeared in the Kiev suburb of Hostomel in November. It was one of seven artworks Banksy painted on war-ravaged buildings in and around Kiev.
On Dec. 2, a group of activists removed the mural, police said in a statement. Authorities arrested several people in connection with the removal.
The statement, released by the Interior Ministry on Monday, said the mural was valued at more than 9 million Ukrainian hryvnia, the national currency, or about $245,000. It said an activist, described as the organizer, could face up to 12 years in prison for removing the mural.
Although police were unable to identify the person facing jail, one of the activists, Serhiy Dovhyi, had previously said he was under criminal investigation for removing the work. Mr Dovhyi said in an interview with DailyExpertNews last month that he intended to auction it off and donate the proceeds to the Ukrainian military.
In the interview, he defended his actions by saying that the artwork had to be saved because the wall it was painted on was scheduled to be demolished. He described removing the graffiti, which he documented in videos, as an additional act of performance art that could increase its value.
“Street art, unlike an artwork in the Louvre, does not belong to anyone,” Mr Dovhyi told The Times.
However, authorities insisted that the mural should have remained on the wall to become part of a future monument or building.
It’s not the first time ownership of one of Banksy’s works has been disputed. In 2014, a Banksy painting appeared on a piece of plywood attached to the Broad Plain Boys Club in Bristol, England. The club’s owner, Dennis Stinchcombe, planned to auction the painting to raise money for the club, but the city intervened, claiming it possessed the image of a couple embracing and staring at their mobile phones. In a rare public move, Banksy wrote a letter saying the art should be used to help the club.