Group attempts to steal Banksy mural from wall of war-torn building in Ukraine

A group attempted to steal a Banksy mural from the wall of a damaged building in a town just outside Ukraine’s capital city on Friday but was quickly thwarted by police, the regional governor said.

The individuals cut the mural — which showed a woman standing in a robe and curlers with a gas mask and fire extinguisher — out of the wall in an attempt to steal it and were detained on the spot in Hostomel, Kyiv Gov. Oleksiy Kuleba said in a post on Telegram.

The mural remains undamaged and is in the care of law enforcement amid an investigation into the incident, Kuleba added. He also noted that all of Banksy’s works in the Kyiv region are under police protection.

“There images are, after all, symbols of our struggle against the enemy,” Kuleba said on Telegram. “These are stories about the support and solidarity of the entire civilized world with Ukraine. Let’s do everything to preserve the works of street art as a symbol of our victory.”

Banksy has created several murals on war-torn buildings in Ukraine, including another in the village of Borodyanka outside Bucha. That work by the anonymous artist features a female gymnast balancing in a handstand on top of a pile of debris.