The alleged mastermind of a foiled attempt to steal an anonymous mural by British street artist Banksy painted on a bombed-out building in Ukraine faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted.
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry disclosed on its website on Monday a possible prison sentence, Reuters reported.
In December, police charged a group of people with trying to remove an artwork depicting a woman in a gas mask from a wall in Hostomel, near Kyiv.
“The criminals tried to transport this graffiti with the help of wooden boards and polythene,” the ministry said, according to Reuters. “Due to the concern of the citizens, the police and other security forces were able to arrest the criminals.”
The mural was one of seven that Banksy painted in Ukraine last year in solidarity with its citizens during the Russian invasion, which began in February 2022.
The piece of gas mask remains under police protection.
In December, Banksy announced the release of a limited edition to raise funds for the Legacy of War Foundation, which supports Ukrainian citizens affected by the conflict.
The organization provided the artist, whose identity has never been officially confirmed, with an ambulance to use during his trip to the country. It also allowed him to escape an “angry babushka” who prevented him from painting on his building, he revealed on his website last month.
More than 1 million registration requests were submitted for the chance to buy one of the 50 prints, said the charity, which said it had also received “3,500 hostile attacks from Russian IP addresses”.
Banksy’s art has sold for millions of dollars in the past.
The artist has previously encouraged people to leave street art in situ, however, a harsh lesson one man learned when he displayed an alleged Banksy artwork on the TV show “Antiques Roadshow.”
Last year, eight men were convicted of stealing his tribute to the victims of the 2015 Paris terror attacks, which he painted on a door of the Bataclan theatre.
See all Banksy art from Ukraine here:
