Larry Fraser, 49, has been jailed for 13 months after admitting a smash-and-grab burglary that stole a Banksy Girl with Balloon print from a London gallery. The print, valued at £270,000 (about $355,200), was recovered two days after the September theft and Fraser was identified on CCTV. Judge Anne Brown described the offence as "brazen and serious" at Kingston Crown Court. The case reinforces the global recognition and high value of Banksy’s politically charged street art.
Man Jailed 13 Months After Smash-and-Grab Theft of Banksy’s 'Girl with Balloon' Print
Larry Fraser, 49, has been jailed for 13 months after admitting a smash-and-grab burglary that stole a Banksy Girl with Balloon print from a London gallery. The print, valued at £270,000 (about $355,200), was recovered two days after the September theft and Fraser was identified on CCTV. Judge Anne Brown described the offence as "brazen and serious" at Kingston Crown Court. The case reinforces the global recognition and high value of Banksy’s politically charged street art.
09:54 AM, 11/15/2025Culture
Man jailed after theft of Banksy print recovered two days later
Forty-nine-year-old Larry Fraser has been sentenced to 13 months in prison after admitting a smash-and-grab burglary in which a print of Banksy’s iconic Girl with Balloon was taken from a London gallery in September last year. The print was valued at £270,000 (around $355,200), the court heard.
Fraser attempted to conceal his identity with a mask but was captured on gallery CCTV. Metropolitan Police officers tracked him down two days after the theft and the artwork was recovered shortly after his arrest, the force said.
“This is a brazen and serious non-domestic burglary,” Judge Anne Brown said when imposing sentence at Kingston Crown Court.
Detective Chief Inspector Scott Mather praised the swift police response:
“Banksy’s ‘Girl with Balloon’ is known across the world – and we reacted immediately to not just bring Fraser to justice but also reunite the artwork with the gallery.”
Context: the story behind the artwork
Banksy’s Girl with Balloon first appeared as street art in Shoreditch, east London, in 2002. Later versions were stencilled on the South Bank in 2004 and on the separation wall in the occupied West Bank in 2005. One framed version of the work famously began to shred itself moments after being sold for more than £1 million at Sotheby’s in 2018.
The anonymous British artist has repeatedly used his work to comment on political issues. In 2005 he sprayed nine stencilled images along the eight-metre-high separation wall in the occupied West Bank; in 2007 he created several pieces in Bethlehem; and in 2015 he is reported to have entered the Gaza Strip via a smuggling tunnel to paint on bomb-damaged buildings. In 2017 he opened the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, close to the separation wall.
Earlier this year, authorities in London attempted to remove a Banksy painting on a court wall that depicted a judge hitting a protester and was thought to reference the government’s crackdown on the Palestine Action protest group.
Banksy rose from being a local graffiti artist in Bristol to an internationally recognised, yet elusive, figure whose stencilled works command high prices and frequent public attention.