London police reported yesterday that a 49-year-old man was sentenced to 13 months in prison in 2024 for stealing the graffiti “Girl with Balloons” by an unidentified artist, Banksy, who is famous for spreading his art on walls in the British capital and other cities.
Larry Fraser pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing an artwork depicting a girl in a dress trying to reach a red heart-shaped balloon.
The work, valued at £270,000 (approximately R1.9 million), was taken from a London gallery in 2024 when the thieves entered the gallery wearing masks and gloves and broke down the door with a hammer, police said.
Investigators were able to arrest him within 48 hours of the theft, thanks to security camera footage that showed him loading the works into a van a few steps away from the gallery. The work was found intact two days after Fraser’s arrest.
The original graffiti appeared on Waterloo Bridge in south London in 2002 and remains one of the most famous works of this enigmatic Bristol-born artist.
In October 2018, a copy of “Girl with Balloons” caused a sensation when it was partially self-destructed by a shredder hidden inside the picture frame shortly after it was auctioned at Sotheby’s in London.
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