Banksy artworks in Ukraine put under screens after thefts of priceless pieces mystery artist created on bombed-out ruins | The Sun
Banksy's murals on bombed-out buildings in Ukraine have been given new security measures to stop thieves.
Workers have been busy covering the priceless artworks with screens and sensors after one was hacked off the wall by crooks hoping to sell it.
World-renowned graffiti artist Banksy travelled to the war-ravaged country last November and with his usual subversive and humorous-style stencilled artworks onto buildings devastated by Russian shelling.
He created six artworks across Kyiv and other cities, towns and villages, many of which included woman and children as symbols of Ukrainian resistance.
His inspirational and playful works of art include a dancing ballerina in Irpin, an old man bathing in Horenka and a child Judo-slamming Putin in Borodyanka.
For months, as buildings have been steadily rebuilt and streets cleared or rubble, all the art had remained preserved and un-touched with the help of locals, except one.
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The mural of a woman in hair rollers wearing a gas mask and holding a fire extinguisher on a burnt-out building in Hostomel was chiselled off the wall by robbers in December.
A local resident saw the crime and called the police leading all five men to be arrested. The art was rescued in good condition and is now under lock and eye in a police station.
The attempted heist prompted serious discussions over the safety of the murals and now the government has stepped in to begin more serious plans to preserve them for their nations future.
"We believe that this is a newly discovered cultural and historical heritage," said the deputy head of Kyiv regional military administration Oleh Torkunov.
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"Every single Banksy work should remain on the site as it is in its original form," he told EuroNews.
Local authorities hope to keep all of the art in its current locations and plan the reconstruction of the ruined buildings around them, which will be tricky as some of the structures were set to be demolished.
In the meantime, new protective measures are being unfolded in the form of glass cages and some have already been treated to sensors and cameras to further keep potential thieves at bay.
"In places where it's much easier to get to, there's an additional sensor under the glass that reacts if someone will try to hit it, break it," Valentyn Hrytsenko, representative of the security company responsible for the job told EuroNews.
"And on the opposite side, there is another sensor that takes a photo. When my colleagues received the alarm, they immediately saw that there were people near the painting."
In Irpin, Banksy stencilled his dancing ballerina onto a hollowed-out building, the city officials made the street artist a honorary citizen.
Elsewhere, a gymnast balances on the ruins of a building, while children play on a seesaw made of an anti-tank obstacle in Kyiv – the stencils becoming a symbol of hope and defiance painted onto volatile surfaces in a time of utter devastation and destruction.
Banksy's video of his art mission featured a child and her mother staring at the mural of Putin being beaten by a child in a Judo match.
"It was a bomb here and many people died," said the local resident.
"My child used to go to this kindergarten…We already cried a lot, I don't have any tears left," she said staring at the work, which acts as a monument to their pain.
A resident of Horenka, Volodymyr Budnichenko, looking at the mural of the older gentlemen in the bath told EuroNews: "Let it remain here."
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The 72-year old Ukrainian added: "People are sitting here looking at them. Let them be.
"It won't be long before this house will be restored. Nobody tells us anything about whether they will do anything with it. So let [the artwork] be there."
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