Removing article from place open to the public[1] is a statutory offence in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.
(2) It is immaterial for purposes of subsection (1) above, that the public's access to a building is limited to a particular period or particular occasion; but where anything removed from a building or its grounds is there otherwise than as forming part of, or being on loan for exhibition with, a collection intended for permanent exhibition to the public, the person removing it does not thereby commit an offence under this section unless he removes it on a day when the public have access to the building as mentioned in subsection (1) above.
(3) A person does not commit an offence under this section if he believes that he has lawful authority for the removal of the thing in question or that he would have it if the person entitled to give it knew of the removal and the circumstances of it.
The name referred to the unauthorised removal of Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery.
[9] This offence is created by section 11(1) of the Theft Act (Northern Ireland) 1969.