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Theft of a Banksy at the Bataclan: judgment expected Thursday for eight men

2022-06-23T02:41:59.004Z


In the last hours of the trial, which took place from June 8 to 10, the public prosecutor requested 18 months to four years of firm imprisonment against the seven French defendants and the Italian defendant.


The Paris Criminal Court rules Thursday, June 23 in the afternoon on the fate of eight men, suspected of the theft or concealment in 2019 of a Bataclan door decorated with a Banksy painting considered a tribute to the victims. of November 13.

In the last hours of the trial, which took place from June 8 to 10, the public prosecutor requested 18 months to four years in prison for the seven French defendants and the Italian defendant, aged 31 to 58. .

This decision comes as the final arguments of the defense in the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015, where the verdict is expected on June 29, are taking place in another building.

Read alsoWhy the art market is afraid to unmask the Banksy phenomenon?

The "sad girl", claimed by the street artist with a mysterious identity, had been painted with a stencil in June 2018 in the Saint-Pierre-Amelot passage, an alley by which many spectators fled the attack which targeted the theater.

On January 26, 2019, shortly after 4 a.m., three masked men had cut the metal door supporting the work, taking it away in a white van with hidden plates, in eight minutes.

This disappearance had aroused

"deep indignation"

, in the words of the Bataclan team.

This

"symbol of meditation and belonging to all, residents, Parisians, citizens of the world, has been taken away from us"

, she lamented.

The door was finally found in June 2020 in the attic of a farm in Italy.

“Nickel-plated feet”

The prosecution depicted behind this theft a

“structured organization”

and saw in it a

“scavenger behavior”

;

the defense described a band of

"nickel feet"

who failed to measure the memorial range of the gate.

Three thirty-somethings admitted the theft, one of them claiming to have been

"threatened"

and forced to participate.

They evoked an operation mounted by greed, because of the exponential rating of Banksy on the art market, without thinking of the

"symbol"

.

Two appeared free, a third in pre-trial detention: the prosecutor requested four years of imprisonment, for the first two, as well as three years against the last.

Read alsoThe self-destruction of Banksy's canvas opens a breach in the art market

The representative of the public prosecutor's office also claimed six years, three of which are firm, with a fine of 150,000 euros, for a 41-year-old man, a millionaire after winning the lottery and a fan of street art, considered by the prosecution to be the "sponsor of mischief.

The latter claimed on the contrary to have been

"put in front of the fait accompli"

, to have accepted by friendship to keep the door and then wanted to

"remove the problem"

to Italy.

Three men, who participated in different stages of the transport, as well as the owner of the Hotel des Abruzzes where the door was stored for a time, admitted the facts, however denying having known the real nature of the work.

Sentences ranging from three years' imprisonment, including 18 months firm, to four years, including two firm, accompanied by a fine of 1,500 to 50,000 euros, were required against them.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-06-23

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