The Verdict on the Stolen Banksy
June 16, 2026
Banksy’s Balloon Girl
By Cara Ianuale
In November of 2025, a judge at London’s Kingston Crown Court sentenced 48-year-old Larry Fraser to thirteen months in jail for the theft of Banksy’s Balloon Girl print from Grove Gallery in London.
Video surveillance footage captured Fraser using a hammer to break the gallery’s glass door at night on September 8, 2024. The theft took just 36 seconds. Footage also showed Fraser and 54-year-old James Love retrieving the stolen print from a nearby building after the theft and escaping in Love’s van. Within two days, the police charged Fraser and Love for burglary; by the end of the week, the piece was returned to the gallery.
Fraser pled guilty, admitting that he stole the work in hopes of paying off a drug debt. The jury cleared Love, who had done odd jobs for Fraser for years and who claimed to have been unaware of the theft until after the fact.
The theft occurred a couple years after Banksy’s infamous stunt in 2018, when he planted a shredder in the frame of another Balloon Girl print and rigged it to self-destruct immediately following its $1.4 million sale at a Sotheby’s auction.
Read more on the sentencing here.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and is not meant to provide legal advice. Readers should not construe or rely on any comment or statement in this article as legal advice. For legal advice, readers should seek a consultation with an attorney.
