\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA man has been sentenced to more than a year in prison for stealing a signed print of Banksy\u2019s \u201cGirl with Balloon\u201d artwork in a smash-and-grab theft from a London gallery.Larry Fraser, 49, was sentenced to 13 months in prison on Friday for stealing the 2004 print \u2013 worth \u00a3270,000 (about $355,000) \u2013 from the Grove Gallery in the British capital\u2019s upmarket neighborhood of Fitzrovia last September, according to London\u2019s Metropolitan Police.Video above: London Metropolitan Police released security camera footage that shows the alleged thief stealing the artwork and making off with itPolice said Fraser had pleaded guilty to one count of non-residential burglary.\u201cMet Flying Squad officers worked tirelessly to identify the suspect and managed to track him to a location several streets away, where he was revealed to be Fraser,\u201d police said in a statement Friday. \u201cThey even caught him on CCTV loading the artwork into a van before fleeing the scene.\u201dThe Flying Squad, a specialist unit within the Metropolitan Police tasked with investigating serious organized crime, recovered the artwork within four days, following Fraser\u2019s arrest and \u201ccovert enquiries,\u201d police said.Art recovery expert Arthur Brand told CNN that it was notable that the stolen artwork was a print, because these are often easier to sell than original works. \u201cIt is easier to sell a print because there are more of them. If you steal a painting, which is unique, it\u2019s very hard to sell,\u201d Brand said.Speaking about the police\u2019s response, Brand said: \u201cIt\u2019s pretty quick what they did \u2026 It shows that if the police want to catch you, they can. There are CCTV cameras everywhere, especially in England.\u201dIn a video shared online by police, a hooded man can be seen smashing the glass door of the gallery before climbing into the building and taking the print off the wall.The manager of the gallery, 29-year-old Lindor Mehmetaj, said he was \u201ccompletely shocked\u201d by the robbery while thanking police for their \u201cremarkable\u201d response, in a statement shared by police.Detective Chief Inspector Scott Mather, who led the police investigation, said that Banksy\u2019s \u201cGirl with Balloon\u201d piece is known \u201cacross the world.\u201d\u201cWe reacted immediately to not just bring Fraser to justice but also reunite the artwork with the gallery,\u201d Mather said in a statement.The iconic image of a girl reaching out for a red, heart-shaped balloon by the anonymous British graffiti artist hit the headlines in 2018 when the painting self-destructed just moments after being sold for $1.4 million.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A man has been sentenced to more than a year in prison for stealing a signed print of Banksy\u2019s \u201cGirl with Balloon\u201d artwork in a smash-and-grab theft from a London gallery.<\/p>\n
Larry Fraser, 49, was sentenced to 13 months in prison on Friday for stealing the 2004 print \u2013 worth \u00a3270,000 (about $355,000) \u2013 from the Grove Gallery in the British capital\u2019s upmarket neighborhood of Fitzrovia last September, according to London\u2019s Metropolitan Police.<\/p>\n
Video above: London Metropolitan Police released security camera footage that shows the alleged thief stealing the artwork and making off with it<\/strong><\/p>\n Police said Fraser had pleaded guilty to one count of non-residential burglary.<\/p>\n \u201cMet Flying Squad officers worked tirelessly to identify the suspect and managed to track him to a location several streets away, where he was revealed to be Fraser,\u201d police said in a statement Friday. \u201cThey even caught him on CCTV loading the artwork into a van before fleeing the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n The Flying Squad, a specialist unit within the Metropolitan Police tasked with investigating serious organized crime, recovered the artwork within four days, following Fraser\u2019s arrest and \u201ccovert enquiries,\u201d police said.<\/p>\n Art recovery expert Arthur Brand told CNN that it was notable that the stolen artwork was a print, because these are often easier to sell than original works. \u201cIt is easier to sell a print because there are more of them. If you steal a painting, which is unique, it\u2019s very hard to sell,\u201d Brand said.<\/p>\n Speaking about the police\u2019s response, Brand said: \u201cIt\u2019s pretty quick what they did \u2026 It shows that if the police want to catch you, they can. There are CCTV cameras everywhere, especially in England.\u201d<\/p>\n In a video shared online by police, a hooded man can be seen smashing the glass door of the gallery before climbing into the building and taking the print off the wall.<\/p>\n The manager of the gallery, 29-year-old Lindor Mehmetaj, said he was \u201ccompletely shocked\u201d by the robbery while thanking police for their \u201cremarkable\u201d response, in a statement shared by police.<\/p>\n Detective Chief Inspector Scott Mather, who led the police investigation, said that Banksy\u2019s \u201cGirl with Balloon\u201d piece is known \u201cacross the world.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe reacted immediately to not just bring Fraser to justice but also reunite the artwork with the gallery,\u201d Mather said in a statement.<\/p>\n The iconic image of a girl reaching out for a red, heart-shaped balloon by the anonymous British graffiti artist hit the headlines in 2018 when the painting self-destructed just moments after being sold for $1.4 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man has been sentenced to more than a year in prison for stealing a signed print of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[2606,166313,181159,181160,75721,181161,72661,57165,15791,181150,181151,181152,40180,181162,181163,748,76377,188,393,77,181153,99541,181154,4884,181155,86788,181156,257,181157,3144,181165,181158,135,4065,529,72983,18939,181164,53923,16,15,359],"class_list":{"0":"post-570945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-art-crime","10":"tag-art-heist","11":"tag-art-heist-london","12":"tag-art-theft","13":"tag-art-theft-uk","14":"tag-artwork","15":"tag-balloon","16":"tag-banksy","17":"tag-banksy-artwork-value","18":"tag-banksy-print-stolen","19":"tag-banksy-theft","20":"tag-body-cam-footage","21":"tag-body-cam-video","22":"tag-bodycam-video","23":"tag-britain","24":"tag-caught-on-camera","25":"tag-crime","26":"tag-england","27":"tag-entertainment","28":"tag-fitzrovia-burglary","29":"tag-girl","30":"tag-girl-with-balloon","31":"tag-great-britain","32":"tag-grove-gallery","33":"tag-jsnd","34":"tag-larry-fraser","35":"tag-london","36":"tag-london-gallery-robbery","37":"tag-man","38":"tag-met-flying-squad-officer","39":"tag-met-police-flying-squad","40":"tag-metropolitan-police","41":"tag-painting","42":"tag-police","43":"tag-print","44":"tag-prison","45":"tag-stolen-banksy-print","46":"tag-true-crime","47":"tag-uk","48":"tag-united-kingdom","49":"tag-video"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}