The work of art of the famous artist, who keeps his identity secret, depicts a sad looking girl. It was painted in 2018 as a tribute to the victims of the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris.
The 'Gate of Banksy' has been officially returned to France on 14 July. It is exhibited at the Farnese Palace in Rome, which houses the French embassy in Italy.
The date and conditions of the artwork's return to France were not disclosed.
The 'Gate of Banksy' had been painted in June 2018 on one of the emergency exits, located behind the Bataclan in Paris. It was a passage through which many spectators of the Eagles of Death Metal concert had escaped during the terrorist attack on 13 November 2015.
Made with stencil and white paint, the work depicts a sad-looking girl as a tribute on the very spot where 90 people were killed during a series of terrorist attacks that hit Paris and its suburb Saint-Denis.
The robbery on the night of 25 to 26 January 2019 was filmed by video surveillance cameras. The criminals, hooded, had seized the artwork by cutting the door with a grinder.
The work of art was found in a farm, in the Abruzzo region near Rome. Six people were arrested at the end of June in France during a vast operation led by the Paris Criminal Investigation Department in the Alps and central regions.
Two of them were charged with robbery in an organised gang and the other four with receiving stolen goods from an organised gang.
According to the Italian news agency, Agi, two of the suspects are Italians born in France and a total of eight people have been arrested, while a suspected accomplice is on the run.
Banksy, who likes to play with the media and the art market, is now one of the most highly regarded contemporary artists in the world.
