Banksy Rat in Liverpool Targeted By Thieves , by Daniel Silk on May 12, 2009 22:20:45 GMT 1, www.clickliverpool.com/news/national-news/124318-banksy-dirty-rat-target-of-thieves.html

Thieves have walked away with parts of a Banksy graffiti painting that has an estimated value of £1m.

The biggest-ever Banksy is a piece of graffiti public art commissioned to cover a derelict pub for a Liverpool arts festival in 2004.

The giant image covers two walls and shows a rat, depicted as a 'graffiti artist' holding a marker pen that has scribbled red ink all over the building.

In 2008 there was a row when the city council planned to cover-up the Banksy as part of a scheme for hiding "grot-spots" during the European Capital of Culture celebrations.

After protests from art lovers city backed-down and left the boarded-up Whitehouse pub uncovered, with its graffiti on proudly on show.

Last year the Georgian property in Berry Street, Liverpool, was put on the market with an estimated value of #500,000.

But estate agents were left bemused when they learned from art experts that the asking price for the building was less value than the potential value of the artwork that covers it.

Now it appears thieves to have begun to target the artwork - making-off with two of the plywood panels

One carried the image of the rat's body and curling tail and the other bore part of a red "streamer" that zig-sags around the building.

Mysterious Bristol-born artist Banksy was relatively unknown at the time he spent a week in Liverpool completing the piece, known locally as 'You Dirty Rat!'.

Having found fame with his politically-charged images, Banksy's words are now prized by art experts and are changing-hands for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

One local shopkeeper confirmed that two sections of security boarding measuring about 6ft by 5ft had been removed from the building overnight.

The man, who did not wish to be named, said: "Two big pieces of board must have been ripped-off by someone using a crow bar or a big claw hammer.

"I don't think it was lead thieves trying to get to the roof because the pieces of plywood vanished. You have got to think that they were deliberately stolen."

A spokesman for Merseyside Police said: "We have no note of any theft bing reported at these premises. If a crime report was made it would be open to be investigated."

Estate Agents Sutton Kersh, who are selling the property declined to comment.