Merlion
06-05-2007, 06:34 PM
This news story is a bit complicated. You'd have to read it carefully.
I don't agree the statue legally belongs to AK47, the 'kidnapper'.
Banksy sculpture is snatched from the garden of 'kidnapper' (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=460066&in_page_id=1770)
The piece was The Drinker - a recreation of Rodin's statue The Thinker, with a traffic cone on its head - and an "arto-politico terrorist" calling himself AK47 demanded a £5,000 ransom.
Banksy offered £2 and the deal was refused. Three years on, and thieves have got into AK47's garden in Hackney and taken the statue, leaving the plinth and cone.
AK47 today accused Banksy, or "his people", of being behind the theft. "The statue was there on Friday when I left for Holland," he said.
"If Banksy has got it back, I will treat it as a joke. But if it's someone taking it for its financial value I'd be annoyed."
The bronze, said by AK47 to be worth about £300,000, first appeared in 2004. It was put on a concrete plinth with Banksy planning to move it from venue to venue.
Then in April that year it disappeared from Shaftesbury Avenue. When Banksy refused to pay a ransom the piece languished in a warehouse until AK47 decided that cost too much.
AK47 claimed the piece was legally his, as it had essentially been dumped on the streets of London without permission. "I've reported the theft to the police," he said.
He claimed that he had been in talks with auctioneers Bonhams over the sale of the statue, and Banksy had shown interest in buying it back. .......
I don't agree the statue legally belongs to AK47, the 'kidnapper'.
Banksy sculpture is snatched from the garden of 'kidnapper' (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=460066&in_page_id=1770)
The piece was The Drinker - a recreation of Rodin's statue The Thinker, with a traffic cone on its head - and an "arto-politico terrorist" calling himself AK47 demanded a £5,000 ransom.
Banksy offered £2 and the deal was refused. Three years on, and thieves have got into AK47's garden in Hackney and taken the statue, leaving the plinth and cone.
AK47 today accused Banksy, or "his people", of being behind the theft. "The statue was there on Friday when I left for Holland," he said.
"If Banksy has got it back, I will treat it as a joke. But if it's someone taking it for its financial value I'd be annoyed."
The bronze, said by AK47 to be worth about £300,000, first appeared in 2004. It was put on a concrete plinth with Banksy planning to move it from venue to venue.
Then in April that year it disappeared from Shaftesbury Avenue. When Banksy refused to pay a ransom the piece languished in a warehouse until AK47 decided that cost too much.
AK47 claimed the piece was legally his, as it had essentially been dumped on the streets of London without permission. "I've reported the theft to the police," he said.
He claimed that he had been in talks with auctioneers Bonhams over the sale of the statue, and Banksy had shown interest in buying it back. .......