Chipping away: A man, who identified himself only as Chris but claimed to be a 'private art handler' from Los Angeles, takes a heavy duty drill to the Banksy art work 'Girl with Umbrella' on a wall in New Orleans



Suspicions were aroused on Friday when a team of men, brandishing heavy duty drilling tools, erected a wooden screen to obscure the view of the precious art work.



Photographer Charlie Varley recounted his conversation with one of the men outside the drop-in center.

'He called himself Chris and said it would be shipped to Tate Modern in London,' he said.



Residents said the group of at least four people spent hours smashing away bricks holding the work titled Girl with Umbrella from the wall.



Denial: The man claimed the Girl with Umbrella would be shipped to London for a Tate Modern retrospective of Banksy's work in April - though the museum confirmed that no such exhibition is scheduled

Hidden: Neighbours watched men erect a wooden screen, pictured, around the Banksy on the side of a drop-in centre, so they could work without being seen

When concerned neighbours approached the work party, they were told the Banksy was being donated to 'the museum', according to another resident.



'They said they were removing the piece to take it to a museum ,' Tracie Ashe told WWLTV.COM



'They didn’t specify which museum, and then he asked them for their permit. They didn’t have a permit.



'He also asked them who the owner was and if they had the owner’s permission and they wouldn’t give the owner’s name. When he kept questioning them about that, they packed up their equipment and left.

‘It’s a little bit scary because the wall definitely needs to be repaired. It could possibly be a load-bearing corner.'

In demand: As the value of Banksy works have spiraled - with one selling for $1.8m - thieves have increasingly targeted the art

A security guard has now been stationed on the site to protect it from any further attempt to remove it.

The man claimed they had permission of the building's owner to remove the work - a claim local media have not been able to verify.



Representatives from the New Orleans Museum of Art and Ogden Museum of Southern Art both said their institutions had no plans to acquire the work, according to the NOLA Defender.

The street art stencil first appeared in 2008 before the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.



As the value of Banksy works have spiraled into the stratosphere - with one selling for $1.8m - fears have grown that they will be targeted by thieves.

A Banksy mural which was controversially ripped from the wall of a north London shop was withdrawn from sale at an auction in Miami amid claims it had been stolen.



Slave Labour, which shows a young boy hunched over a sewing machine making Union Jack bunting, appeared on the wall in Wood Green, north London, in May, 2012, just before the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.