Nottingham residents have shared their frustration after a new Banksy artwork was vandalised.
The piece of street art appeared on Ilkeston Road in Radford in October. The piece, which combined graffiti and a real bicycle, depicts a young girl hula-hooping with the wheel of a bicycle, while a real bike was chained to a nearby pole – with its back wheel missing.
Banksy revealed that he was behind the new work soon after, as he shared a picture of the artwork to his Instagram account.
However, over the weekend (21-22 November), the bike appears to have been stolen from the pole it was chained to.
Speaking to The Guardian, teacher and local resident Tracy Jayne said that she’d spotted it was missing when visiting the piece on Sunday (22 November).
“It’s a shame if someone has taken it and chosen to be that disrespectful, not just to Banksy himself but to the whole of Nottingham,” she said.
“It’s really saddening there are people like that who want to destroy his art, what are they going to achieve from it?” Jayne said. “I’m hoping the bike will be recovered. Sometimes things magically reappear.”
Nottinghamshire police have not yet received any reports about the missing bike.
Last month, Banksy’s ‘Show Me the Monet’ became the artist’s second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction, after fetching £7.5m.
