Kingston Crown Court heard the other man, 48-year-old Larry Fraser, had already pleaded guilty to burglary.
Prosecution barrister Philip Stott said Mr Love was a “relatively successful builder” whereas Fraser was “impoverished” and only had £1.75 in his bank account the day before the theft.
Mr Love had transferred £200 to Fraser on the day of the offence, Mr Stott said.
On the evening the Banksy was taken, the mobile phones of both men were being used in the vicinity of the gallery, the jury was told, and Fraser is said to have called Mr Love minutes after smashing the gallery doors and taking the painting.
After leaving the gallery, Fraser took the print into a nearby property where he left the artwork and changed his top, the trial heard.
Soon after, the night watchman at the building was “startled” to find a “large painting” by an interior doorway and had “no idea how it had got there because it hadn’t been there when he walked past the same spot earlier that evening”, Mr Stott said.
He claimed the duo pushed past the night watchman, collected the artwork and drove to a block of flats in the Isle of Dogs where Mr Love unloaded the Banksy.