December 22nd 2023.
It was a scene that shocked many onlookers - a man brazenly unbolting a stop sign with a Banksy piece on it. Footage shows the man, dressed in a red jacket and black trousers, using bolt cutters to yank the sign off its hinges. An accomplice steadied him as he climbed onto a Lime Bike to reach the pole at the intersection of Southampton Way and Commercial Way in Peckham.
The video was taken at around 12.30pm, just one hour after Banksy had confirmed the work - three aircraft resembling military drones - was genuine. An onlooker described the scene as the man "tried to climb up to the sign and then couldn't quite knock it, the sign, of its hinges, just with his hand."
The onlooker, who wished to remain anonymous, added: "So then he went away and then came back with a pair of bolt cutters and climbed up on the bike. He fell off the first time. Then his mate steadied the bike and then he climbed back up again and just bashed the sign off the hinges and then ran off."
The witness said they were surprised to see the art and that it would have been "nice if it stayed there for a while." They added that the man left a tool behind when he ran away, which was later found on the wall.
It's a strange incident, but it shows the power of art and the lengths some people will go to for a piece of Banksy. As the onlooker concluded: "These pieces of art are nice, it would be nice if it had stayed there for a while."
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