Banksy's Nottingham hula-hooping girl artwork 'ransacked', bicycle goes missing

Anonymous British street artist Banksy's latest artwork has been targeted by some miscreant as a broken bicycle, which formed part of his hula-hooping girl graffiti, has gone missing. According to BBC, the bicycle that completed the hula-hooping girl artwork vanished from its spot this weekend. 

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Banksy's official Instagram handle had claimed the artwork last month after it posted the picture of the graffiti that had a broken bicycle beside it. The artwork, which showed a girl hula-hooping with a bicycle tyre and a broken bike kept in front of her, was installed in Nottingham near a beauty salon. 

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Artwork captures history

The artwork captures an important part of Nottingham's history when thousands of workers became jobless as a result of Raleigh bikes closing down its factory in 2002. The over a century-old Raleigh bicycle company was based out of Nottingham and was considered the pride of the city until it shut down all its plants in the country and decided to import low-cost high-quality bicycles from developing countries. 

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Tracy Jayne, a resident of Nottingham, who was one of the first persons to notice that the bicycle had disappeared, said that it is such a shame if someone has stolen the bike. Tracy's late husband, who died in 2017, worked for the bicycle company until it decided to bring down the shutters permanently.

According to the report, an investigation into the matter is yet to be launched as the city police said that the missing bike case has not been reported to them so far. The artwork had been targeted in the past as well with spray paints despite the city council covering it with a transparent cover. 

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