#France arrests six in theft of Banksy artwork from Bataclan

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Italian Carabinieri pose near a piece of art attributed to Banksy that was stolen from the Bataclan in Paris in 2019.
Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images

French officials arrested six people near France’s Italian border in connection with the theft of a mural by street artist Banksy that memorialized the victims of the 2015 Paris terror attacks, sources told Agence France Presse Saturday.

The piece was stolen in 2019. Detectives finally tracked it down in a barn at a remote farmhouse in the Abruzzo region of Italy earlier this month.

The piece was originally spray-painted onto an emergency exit door at the Bataclan theater to memorialize the November 2015 Islamic extremist attack, which took place during an Eagles of Death Metal concert. The stenciled work commemorated the deaths of 90 concert-goers. But, in January 2019, the painting was stolen by a team of hooded thieves.

Two were charged with theft while the other four were charged with concealing theft, and all six were placed in pre-trial detention, AFP said.