Stolen Banksy artwork found in Italy returned to France

A Banksy artwork that had been stolen from the Bataclan concert hall in Paris and discovered in a farmhouse in Italy was returned to France on Tuesday.

The Banksy mural shows a grieving girl, head bowed, in remembrance of the terror attack of 2015 during which 90 people were killed by Islamic State gunmen at the Bataclan concert hall.

The work stolen work, which had been removed from the concert hall’s emergency door in January last year, reappeared in the Italian region of Abruzzo last month.

The artwork was presented to France’s ambassador Christian Masset on Tuesday at a Bastille Day ceremony and was then displayed at the French embassy in Rome. In due course, the painting will be taken to France.

During the ceremony, Masset commented that the work “has a dual significance because it reminds us of the 90 victims… and it was a witness to the massacre.”