Two men were arrested in Folkestone after a copy of a Banksy graffiti artwork, which was itself the focus of a legal tussle after being ripped from a wall in the Kent town and shipped to the US, was allegedly stolen.
The stencilled work by local street artist Robsci was based on Art Buff, a 2014 work by Banksy which was part of the Folkestone Triennial.
Officers on patrol on Sunday morning spotted two men apparently trying to steal the new work, which had been installed the previous day on a chipboard awning boarding up the garden of a derelict building, west of the town’s centre.
Joshua Tyrell, from Guildford in Surrey, has been charged with drink driving. He was arrested in the early hours of Sunday, and has been bailed to appear in court on 21 September.
A 29-year-old man from Ashford arrested on suspicion of theft was released without charge.
The copy, the apparent target of the bungled raid, was photographed at the scene hours after the incident.
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The original, which was valued at almost half a million pounds and is due to be exhibited in Folkestone next year, is safely in storage.
Last year a judge ruled the mural should be returned to the place it was originally daubed after it was chiselled out of the wall by the owners of an amusement arcade and sent to a gallery in New York.
The original depicts a woman looking at an empty plinth while listening to headphones. In the copy, a phallic cactus appears on the plinth together with the words “return to sender”. It is signed “Robsci by Banksy”.
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The legal challenge to return the original Banksy to Kent was launched by Folkestone arts charity the Creative Foundation, which runs the Folkestone Triennial.
Ioannis Ioannou, the Creative Foundation marketing manager, said: “Our Banksy is in storage safe. It looks like someone has just copied it. Robsci is a local guy who goes around doing graffiti similar to Banksy.”