It had been advertised as “Banksy unauthorised”, a retrospective of 58 of the street artist’s most famous works, put on display in an empty supermarket in a swanky part of Brussels.
On Thursday night, a Belgian court proved just how unauthorised the exhibition may have been by ordering bailiffs to seize the art, valued at over £12m.
After five hours, and some careful handling, the pieces, including a version of the famous stencil mural Girl With Balloon, were driven away at midnight to an unidentified secure location, where they will sit out of the public eye until another court hearing in January.
Stanislas Eskenazi, a lawyer for Strokar Inside, the not-for-profit organisation putting on the exhibition in the former Delhaize supermarket, said his clients had been caught up in a “crazy story”, pitting a former Banksy manager against a German go-between company whose previous speciality was selling meat.
