‘Stolen’ Banksy statue pulled from auction

A British auction house has halted the sale of a controversial “stolen” Banksy statue, which was expected to fetch £1m ($1.3m) at auction.

Banksy’s “The Drinker” – a pensive nude bronze sculpture described by auction house Sotheby’s as a “subversive recreation” of Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker” – was due to go on sale in a London auction on Tuesday.

Adorned with a traffic cone as a hat, “The Drinker” – made of industrial materials – was originally erected near Shaftesbury Avenue in 2004, before it was “stolen” by artist Andy Link, the leader of the art group Art Keida, according to Sotheby’s.

Link, also known by the moniker AK47, told CNN that the statue had been “abandoned and dumped” by Banksy.

Banksy's "The Drinker" is a "subversive recreation" of "The Thinker" by Auguste Rodin.

“I did it as a bit of a stunt, a bit of a prank,” Link said in a phone interview, adding that he made efforts to return the statue to the artist, and had contacted the police to see if it had been reported as lost or stolen.

The statue remained unclaimed, and so Link said he kept it until 2007, when it was taken from his garden. Link said he reported the theft to police, and registered the loss on an art theft registry.

“The Drinker” was listed in a Sotheby’s auction catalog, and was due to be auctioned in London on Tuesday. It was expected to fetch between £750,000 and £1 million ($970,000 to $1.3 million).

On Sunday, Sotheby’s told CNN that they were satisfied that the cosigner had the right to sell the work, and that they had conducted pre-sale due diligence checks.

In their catalog, Sotheby’s said the work was “mysteriously retrieved” from Art Kieda in an “anonymous heist,” and was later acquired by its present owner in 2014.

But on Tuesday, the statue was suddenly withdrawn from sale. “The work has been withdrawn in agreement with the consignor,” a spokesperson for Sotheby’s told CNN in a statement.

A look at some of the recent work of the famously anonymous British graffiti artist Banksy. Banksy's "Love is in the Bin" is unveiled on October 12, 2018, at Sotheby's in London. Originally titled "Girl with Balloon," the canvas passed through a hidden shredder seconds after the hammer fell on October 5 at Sotheby's London Contemporary Art Evening Sale, making it the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction.

Banksy protested the incarceration of Zehra Dogan, a Turkish artist who was imprisoned last year over a painting.

"Civilian Drone Strike," revealed in London last September, targeted one of the world's largest arms fairs.

The original version of Banksy's artwork features a red balloon. The print offered to voters in the Bristol area showed a balloon colored like a Union Jack flag.

In May, elusive street artist Banksy revealed a new mural. The large-scale painting depicts a worker chipping away at one of the twelve stars on the European Union flag.

In March, Banksy revealed a large-scale installation in Bethlehem. Titled the Walled Off Hotel, the interactive artwork features nine guest rooms and a presidential suite.

Each room critiques the division between Israel and Palestine, and the hotel looks out to a 30-foot concrete wall, which has been described as the largest canvas in the world.

In June 2016 elusive UK street artist Banksy painted this mural for students at a primary school in his hometown of Bristol, England. Students had named a house at their school for the artist, who surprised them with the mural when they returned from a holiday break. Here's a look at some other notable Banksy works.

A mural of a weeping woman, painted by the British street artist Banksy, is seen in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Wednesday, April 1. The mural was painted on a door of a house destroyed last summer during the fighting between Israel and Hamas. The owner of the house said he was tricked into selling the door for the equivalent of $175, not realizing the painting was by the famously anonymous artist.

A Palestinian child stands next to a Banksy mural of a kitten on the remains of a destroyed house in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, in February 2015.

A child in Beit Hanoun walks past a mural February 2015 that depicts children using an Israeli watchtower as a swing ride.

A Banksy mural depicting pigeons holding anti-immigration signs was destroyed by the local council in Clacton-on-Sea, England, in October 2014 after the council received complaints that the artwork was offensive.

A Banksy work appears at a youth center in Bristol, England, in April 2014. Called "Mobile Lovers," it features a couple embracing while checking their cell phones. Members of the youth center took down the piece from a wall on a Bristol street and replaced it with a note saying the work was being held at the club "to prevent vandalism or damage being done." The discovery came shortly after another image believed to be by Banksy surfaced in Cheltenham, England.

"The Banality of the Banality of Evil" actually started out as a thrift store painting in New York City. Once altered by Banksy, who inserted an image of a Nazi officer sitting on a bench, it was re-donated to the store in October 2013, according to the artist's site.

Banksy's art exhibit "Grim Reaper Bumper Car" sits on New York's Lower East Side in October 2013. The famously anonymous artist, whose paintings regularly go for six figures at auction houses around the world, said he was on a "residency on the streets of New York."

A Banksy piece covers the main entrance to Larry Flynt's Hustler Club in New York's Hell's Kitchen in October 2013.

Banksy's replica of the Great Sphinx of Giza was made in Queens out of smashed cinder blocks.

Banksy's "Ghetto 4 Life" appeared in the Bronx in October 2013. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested that Banksy was breaking the law with his guerrilla art exhibits, but the New York Police Department denied it was actively searching for him.

Banksy art is seen on the Upper West Side of New York in October 2013.

Banksy work in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, was vandalized in broad daylight in October 2013.

One of Banksy's pieces is this fiberglass sculpture of Ronald McDonald having his shoes shined in front of a Bronx McDonald's.

Graffiti depicting the Twin Towers popped up in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York in October 2013.

Banksy's "Sirens of the Lambs" art installation tours the streets of Manhattan in October 2013. It was a fake slaughterhouse delivery truck full of stuffed animals.

A Banksy mural is seen on a wall in Queens. The quote is from the movie "Gladiator." It says, "What we do in life echoes in eternity."

A woman poses with Banksy's painting of a heart-shaped balloon covered in bandages. The piece, in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, was defaced with red spray paint shortly after it was completed.

A Banksy mural of a dog urinating on a fire hydrant draws attention

This installation, seen in October 2013, on the Lower East Side of New York, depicts stampeding horses in night-vision goggles. Thought to be a commentary on the Iraq War, it also included an audio soundtrack.

Gallery assistants adjust Banksy's "Love Is in the Air" ahead of an auction in London in June 2013. The piece was sold for $248,776.

"The Crayola Shooter" is found in Los Angeles in 2011. It shows a child wielding a machine gun and using crayons for bullets.

Banksy murals popped up around New Orleans a day before the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in 2008.

A silhouette of a child holding a refrigerator-shaped kite is seen on a wall in New Orleans in 2008.

Graffiti on the side of a building in New Orleans shows an elderly person in a rocking chair under the banner, "No Loitering," in 2008.

A scene titled "Chicken Nuggets," from Banksy's "The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill," is seen in New York in 2008.

A man walks past a Banksy piece in London in 2006.

A stenciled image of two policemen kissing is seen in London in 2005.

Banksy, the elusive street artist

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Link argues that the statue still belongs to him, and claims he has original police documents proving his ownership.

The artist said he has made Sotheby’s aware that the ownership of the art is contested.

The feud between the two artists made headlines and in 2016, the film “The Banksy Job,” followed how the saga of the sculpture unfolded.

London’s Metropolitan police told CNN on Sunday there is no active criminal investigation into the matter.

CNN has reached out to representatives for Banksy for comment.