Stolen Banksy artwork honouring Bataclan victims found in the attic of an Italian countryside home. An artist's tribute to the 90 victims who, during an Eagles of Death Metal concert in November 2015, lost their lives due to the raid of a terrorist group inside the french capital historical concert hall.
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Banksy’s work depicted a young female figure with a mournful expression.. on the night of January 2019, It was cut out and removed from one of the venue's emergency doors by a group of hooded people. Now it has been found by the Italian police order of Alba Adriatica (Teramo) in an Abruzzo countryside farmhouse. "Banksy's work, a symbol of recollection and which belonged to everyone - residents, Parisians, citizens of the world - was stolen", commented the Bataclan staff on Twitter in those days. "The artist offered this work on the Bataclan emergency exit door in a moment of homage and support. The very essence of urban art is to give life to a work of art in a particular environment, and we are convinced that this work made sense only in this place. It is for this reason that we had decided to leave it, free, in the street, accessible to all ".
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at the Bataclan music hall in Paris, during a press conference in L' Aquila, Italy, June, 11, 2020. Andrea Rosa-AP
The theft was committed by a group of people with their faces covered, as filmed by surveillance cameras. To disclose the discovery of the door - and therefore the work of Banksy - was the District Attorney of L'Aquila Michele Renzo, who in a note said: "the discovery was possible following investigations conducted by the District Prosecutor in collaboration with the police and the French judiciary ".
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Demonstrations and protests have taken place in numerous cities around the world over the death of George Floyd - the 46-year-old African American who lost his life on May 25 following a police arrest in Minneapolis USA - Banksy's hometown is among those who cities whose responded with greater force: on 7 June a crowd of demonstrators knocked down the statue dedicated to Edward Colston, a merchant and slave trader, who lived between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that during his life has financed the construction of hospitals, schools and churches in Bristol. The statue, once demolished, was thrown overboard, thus leaving the pedestal on which it had been placed empty. To compensate this "void", Banksy (who has already dedicated a work to George Floyd last June 6) has proposed a solution on Instagram in the last few hours: replace the previous statue with a monument against racism.
"What should we do with the empty plinth in the middle of Bristol? Here’s an idea that caters to both, those who miss the Colston statue and those who don’t. We drag him out the water, put him back on the plinth, tie cable around his neck and commission some life-size bronze statues of protestors in the act of pulling him down. Everyone is happy. A famous day commemorated. The post is also accompanied by an artist sketch that represents Banksy's anti-racist alternative, now we have to wait for the city’s response.