A second man has been arrested on suspicion of theft and criminal damage after the removal of a Banksy art installation in Peckham, south-east London, the Metropolitan police said.
The piece – a red stop sign with three military drones on it, potentially worth more than £500,000 – appeared at the intersection of Southampton Way and Commercial Way on Friday morning.
Banksy confirmed its credentials just after midday and less than an hour later two men used to bolt cutter to remove it as onlookers watched, according to a video later posted on social media.
Scotland Yard said a man in his 40s had been arrested on Sunday and was in police custody. Another man, in his 20s, was detained on Saturday, also on suspicion of theft and criminal damage. Police said the latter had been bailed pending further inquiries to return to a London police station in March.
Detectives are still trying to trace the sign and have asked for anyone with information about its whereabouts to contact the force.
Southwark council has since replaced the road sign to avoid endangering road users.
On Friday, Cllr Jasmine Ali from Southwark council said she had “every confidence” police would be able to retrieve the Banksy sign. “We are not just talking about a street sign here, it is a work of art which was put there for the community,” she said. “It is street art and it is for the people.”
John Brandler, whose Essex gallery sells Banksy’s works, said the missing artwork could be worth more than £500,000. “It could easily be higher,” he said. “The media attention has made it more valuable.”
The installation has been interpreted as a critique of the global arms trade and/or of the bombardment of Gaza.
A 2017 Banksy artwork titled Civilian Drone Strike showed a similar configuration of drones bombing a children’s picture of a house as a girl and her pet look on. That piece was auctioned for £205,000 at Art the Arms fair, a five-day exhibition coinciding with the Defence and Security Equipment International arms fair in east London, with the proceeds donated to Reprieve and Campaign Against Arms Trade.
The street artist has a history of installing his artwork in Palestine, including Banksy’s Walled Off hotel in Bethlehem in 2017, which the artist said had “the worst view of any hotel in the world” – in a reference to Israel’s controversial wall in the West Bank.