The bicycle corresponding to the hula girl has now gone missing
(Picture: Tim Goode/PA)A mangled bicycle with just one wheel that formed part of a cherished Banksy artwork has gone missing.
The piece, installed near a beauty salon in Nottingham in October, shows a girl hula-hooping with a bicycle tyre.
In front of her, a broken bike with a missing back wheel is chained to a lampost with an infinity lock, in a nod to the old Raleigh factory nearby.
Locals were unsure if it was a Banksy original until the artist claimed it on his Instagram.
But residents were shocked to discover this weekend that the bike was missing.
It has already been targeted by other graffiti artists at least twice, prompting the council to install a protective plastic covering over the girl.
Resident Tracy Jayne found the artwork had been targeted when she went to visit it on Sunday morning.
She told The Guardian: “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.”
Her late husband worked for bicycle maker Raleigh, one of the largest companies in Nottingham until it closed in 2002 – meaning she had an emotional connection to the work.
Louise Harrison, who was visiting the spot, told the Nottingham Post: "I just think it's sad someone would do that.
Looks like Banksy's bike has been pinched. pic.twitter.com/OlO9ovPj5a
— Joe Locker (@JoeLocker96) November 22, 2020
"I feel like Banksy has given us a gift when we were at a low with increasing infection rates.
"The missing bike does take away from it."
Nottinghamshire Police and Nottingham City Council said the removal of the bike had not been reported to them.
The disappearance comes the month after Banksy’s reimagining of Claude Monet's Impressionist water lilies fetched more than £7.5 million at auction, easily surpassing expectations.
Show Me The Monet was created in 2005 and adds abandoned shopping trolleys and a traffic cone to the famous garden scene.
It was sold at a Sotheby's event in London on Wednesday following a near nine-minute battle between five collectors, the auction house said.
It fetched £7,551,600 against an expectation of between £3.5-5 million.
Thieves used an angle grinder to remove the mural of a mourning girl from a steel security door at the Bataclan concert hall, where 90 people died during a wave of shootings and bombings across the city that left 130 dead.
The piece was discovered in an attic in Italy.
