An artist who spun an elaborate tale about helping Banksy steal his own artwork is back in court insisting he is innocent after already being convicted over the angle-grinder raid.
The case centres on the theft of Banksy’s “Rat with a Box Cutter” from the back of a parking sign near the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France, during the night of 31st August to 1st September 2019.
Mejdi R., a street artist from the Paris suburb of Epinay-sur-Seine, admitted cutting the work from the sign using an angle grinder while perched on a rented cherry picker.
The theft was reportedly caught on camera by local residents who were woken up by noise coming from outside. The thieves did not hide what they were doing. They reportedly wore yellow vests and had a truck with flashing lights, possibly in an attempt to pass themselves off as municipal employees.(CEN)
He claimed he was acting as a “friend” of Banksy and had carried out the removal at the British artist’s request, saying the piece was handed to an English “team” who returned with it to the UK.
According to the defendant, the operation was intended to prevent others from profiting from the stencil and to denounce what he described as the “hypocrisy” of the art market.
However, Banksy, through his press officer, issued a statement during the original proceedings denying that he had commissioned or authorised the theft.
In June 2024, the Paris Judicial Court rejected the defence argument and sentenced Mejdi R. to two years’ suspended imprisonment and a EUR 30,000 (GBP 26,000) fine for the theft of cultural property. The court also ordered him to pay damages to the Pompidou Centre, though far less than the EUR 500,000 (GBP 434,687) initially sought.
The theft was reportedly caught on camera by local residents who were woken up by noise coming from outside. The thieves did not hide what they were doing, leaving only a gaping hole where they had cut the piece from.(CEN)
The defendant appealed the ruling and is now back before the court seeking to overturn the conviction.
The artwork, painted in 2018 to mark the 50th anniversary of the May 1968 protests, has never been recovered.
(Joe Golder/CEN)