Five large shark paintings worth £20,000, created by “the female Banksy”, have been stolen, police said.
The murals, painted by acclaimed street artist Bambi, were taken by thieves who broke into a building site in Upper Street, Islington, north London, earlier this month. The panels are painted black and feature white stencilled images of sharks and fluorescent pink flower shapes.
Scotland Yard said the artwork was stolen some time between 6.30pm on October 8 and the following morning, and urged anyone with information about the1.8-metre by 1.2-metre panels to contact police or Crimestoppers.
‘Photobomb’ is word of the year
Photobomb, an action brought to the nation’s consciousness by famous figures from Jennifer Lawrence to the Queen, has been named the word of the year by Collins English Dictionary.
Other finalists in the tome’s annual list include humblebrag (“a statement that purports to be self-effacing but in fact reveals a person’s wealth or importance”), and bakeoff, a term which took off in 2010 after the first series of The Great British Bake Off.
The first recorded use of the word photobomb was in 2008 as the subject of a Google search. Collins’ Word of the Year contest coincides with the launch of the new edition of Collins English Dictionary.
Long-lost TV episodes discovered
Two long-lost episodes of a TV series regarded as a forerunner of Monty Python are to be shown again after they turned up in the collection of the late Sir David Frost.
The first and last episodes of At Last The 1948 Show, which starred future Pythons John Cleese and Graham Chapman, have not been seen since they were broadcast in 1967.
The programmes, which also starred Tim Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman, were made by Frost’s production company and discovered after his family invited archivists to examine his private collection. Cleese will present a screening of the episodes, which were on reels of 16mm film and had been filmed directly from a television screen, at BFI Southbank in December.
Dancing priests video goes viral
A video of a pair of duelling, dancing American priests studying in Rome has gone viral.
The Rev. David Rider, 29, of New York, and the Rev. John Gibson, 28, of Milwaukee, shot to internet fame when they were filmed in April during a fundraiser at the North American College, the elite American seminary up the hill from the Vatican.
Rev. Rider warmed up the crowd with a lively tap-dance routine, only to be pushed aside by Rev. Gibson’s fast-footed Irish dance. Soon they were battling it out to impress the crowd. At the back of the room, journalist Joan Lewis recorded the event and later posted it on YouTube, where it has had more than 250,000 hits.
Lost dog goes on 2,220km trip
A dog-loving Nebraska trucker has taken a lost seven-stone (45kg) bull mastiff on a 2,220-kilometre trip back to her owners in Arizona.
Dani and Jason Windham were getting ready for their August 4 wedding in Nebraska when their three dogs knocked down a fence and ran off. Animal control officers found two of the pets, but not Koda. Seven days later, the Windhams moved to Camp Verde in Arizona.
Last week, Koda was found after a farmer reported a dog chasing his cattle about 64 kilometres away from where she disappeared. The Windhams could not afford to fly her back, so a lost pets group in Nebraska put out a call for help. Truck driver Jimmy Dimmit answered and reunited Koda with her owners.