A Banksy Art Piece Worth Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars Gets Stolen In Broad Daylight In London

A brand new Banksy was apparently stolen from a south London street today less than an hour after it was revealed to be genuine. The artist confirmed the artwork - a traffic stop sign covered with three military drones - was his in an Instagram post shortly after midday. The revelation led to a stream of locals descending on the site and taking photos of the installation on their phones. But at around 12.30pm, the peaceful scene was shattered by the arrival of two men, one of whom balanced precariously on an Lime e-bike while hurriedly hacking the sign down with bolt cutters.

The rider of the e-bike, who asked to be referred to only as Alex, said he 'watched in awe' as the man 'bashed' the sign with his hands while balancing on the saddle. The man removing the sign, who was wearing a red jacket, fled with it after just 60 seconds after onlookers shouted at him to stop. He left the bolt cutters behind. The extraordinary scenes unfolded at the intersection of Southampton Way and Commercial Way in Peckham close to a zebra crossing.