Stolen Banksy on 'Antiques Roadshow'

The PAS should be explaining this

 Kara Weisenstein, 'A man took a stolen Banksy on 'Antiques Roadshow' and got completely owned', mic.com Oct. 21, 2020

A shameless British man [...] went on Antiques Roadshow recently and tried to get a Banksy piece appraised — after admitting he ripped it off a wall. The unidentified man explained that he spotted the small work of street art — of a rat holding a power drill — near the Brighton seafront in 2004 and decided to make it his. “It looked loose, I went over — pulled it off, basically,” he admitted, laughing about how it took “a little bit of a tug” to pry the piece off the wall. Art expert Rupert Maas had bad news for the man, however. While an authenticated Banksy of that size would’ve fetched at least $25,000, a stolen Banksy is worthless, since the artist refuses to authenticate it — as he always does when people take his art from the public spaces where they were installed. “He calls it pest control,” Maas told the would-be Banksy owner. “I think the message here is, if you do see a piece of graffiti art out there, leave it — leave it for the public,” the art expert added.

British metal detectorists take note. We need a lot more pest control of people that take for themselves what should belong to us all, that is the knowledge that is trashed when oiks like this dig holes in sites and assemblages and pocket what they fancy.