60 Fun Facts About Banksy

Banksy started out in 1990-94 as a freehand graffiti artist in which Bristol collective?

His crewmates were known as Kato and Tes; the wider Bristol scene included Nick Walker, Inkie and 3D.

Banksy says he took up stencilling after seeing a stencilled serial number while hiding where?

Stencils were faster; he had kept getting caught before finishing freehand pieces.

Banksy's first known large mural, The Mild Mild West (1997), shows a teddy bear doing what?

It covered advertising on a former solicitors' office in Bristol.

In the 1990s Banksy played in goal for which Bristol football team, touring Mexico with them in 2001?

His stencils' regular cast includes rats, apes, policemen, soldiers, children and the elderly.

Banksy's first Los Angeles show in 2002 was called what?

It ran at the tiny 33⅓ Gallery in Silver Lake and was billed as 'an Exhibition of Art, Lies and Deviousness'.

At the 2003 London warehouse show Turf War, Banksy painted on what?

An animal rights activist chained herself to the railings even though the RSPCA had cleared the conditions.

Which Edward Hopper painting did Banksy subvert by adding a hooligan in Union Jack underwear?

He also gave Monet's water lily pond a floating shopping trolley; both were shown in Westbourne Grove in 2005.

Banksy's 2004 spoof £10 notes replaced the Queen with whose head?

'Bank of England' became 'Banksy of England'; a wad was thrown into the crowd at Notting Hill Carnival and some tried to spend them.

Banksy's print Napalm places the girl from Nick Ut's Vietnam photograph between which two characters?

He made 150 signed and 500 unsigned copies; the corporate mascots are usually yellow.

How many images did Banksy paint on the Israeli West Bank barrier in August 2005?

They included a ladder going over the wall and children digging a hole through it.

The centrepiece of the 2006 Los Angeles show Barely Legal was a live elephant painted how?

Leaflets said it drew attention to world poverty; after complaints the elephant appeared unpainted on the final day.

Which pop star bought Banksy's original Queen Victoria as a lesbian and two prints for £25,000 in 2006?

Weeks later a set of Kate Moss prints in Warhol's Marilyn style made £50,400 at Sotheby's, a record at the time.

How did Banksy respond on his website to the record-breaking Sotheby's sales of February 2007?

Bombing Middle England had just fetched over £102,000.

Banksy's London mural of two Pulp Fiction characters, painted over in 2007, had them clutching what instead of guns?

TfL said its staff were 'professional cleaners not professional art critics'; Banksy repainted it, then dedicated the spot to the late graffiti writer Ozone.

Which 2007 sale of Space Girl and Bird set a Banksy record of £288,000, about 20 times the estimate?

A month later he was named Art's Greatest Living Briton and, predictably, did not turn up.

Banksy's early online 'manifesto' was really a British officer's diary entry describing what?

Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin's diary is in the Imperial War Museum; the shipment helped the internees regain their humanity.

Banksy's first official New York exhibition in 2008 took the form of what?

The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill featured a hen watching her Chicken McNugget babies peck at barbecue sauce.

Banksy's 2008 Cans Festival took place in which London location?

Stencil artists from around the world were invited to paint Leake Street, as long as they covered no one else's work.

Which French pioneer of the life-sized stencil has Banksy long been accused of copying?

Blek praised Banksy's contribution but said some derivative work makes him 'angry'.

What is Pest Control?

After parting from agent Steve Lazarides in 2009 he made it the sole point of sale for new works.

How many visits did the 2009 Banksy vs Bristol Museum show record across its twelve weeks?

It featured more than 100 works, 78 of them new, with 8,500 visitors on the first weekend alone.

Where did Banksy's documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop premiere in January 2010?

He put up ten street works around Park City and Salt Lake City to coincide with the screening.

Which film beat Exit Through the Gift Shop to the 2010 Best Documentary Oscar?

Banksy said he made an exception to his dislike of award ceremonies for ones he was nominated for.

Banksy created the opening couch gag for which 2010 episode of The Simpsons?

It showed sweatshop conditions and endangered animals making the show; Fox 'sanitised' parts and Al Jean joked 'This is what you get when you outsource'.

Banksy's 2011 Tesco Value petrol-bomb print aided rioters arrested in which Bristol district?

Posters sold for £5 each at the local anarchists' bookfair.

Cardinal Sin, unveiled at Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery in 2011, replaces a priest's face with what?

It was a statement on the Catholic Church child abuse scandal.

The Slave Labour mural, showing a child sewing Union Jack bunting, was removed in 2013 from which shop?

It surfaced in a Miami auction catalogue, was withdrawn after outcry, then reappeared for sale in Covent Garden.

Banksy's month-long 2013 New York 'show on the streets' was titled what?

Mayor Bloomberg said he did not consider graffiti art; many pieces were defaced, removed or stolen.

How much did Banksy charge per canvas at his anonymous 2013 stall on Fifth Avenue near Central Park?

An elderly man staffed it for four hours before the first sale; two of the canvases later fetched $214,000 at auction.

Banksy's 2015 'bemusement park' Dismaland was built in which English seaside town?

Damien Hirst and Jenny Holzer were among the artists shown; it closed permanently after five weeks.

Banksy's Calais 'Jungle' mural The Son of a Migrant from Syria depicts which tech founder?

He also painted a kitten on the ruins of a house in Gaza, noting that online 'people only look at pictures of kittens'.

Banksy's Walled Off Hotel, opened in 2017, is in which city?

Every bedroom faces the separation wall; it marked 100 years of British control of Palestine.

For how much did Girl with Balloon sell at Sotheby's in 2018, moments before shredding itself?

Banksy captioned his Instagram post 'Going, going, gone...'; the buyer, an unnamed European woman, went through with the purchase.

What new title was given to the half-shredded Girl with Balloon?

Sotheby's called it 'the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction'; it resold in 2021 for £18.58 million.

Whom did Banksy quote to justify the shredding, 'The urge to destroy is also a creative urge'?

The line is usually attributed to the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin; Banksy also said that 'in rehearsals it worked every time'.

Banksy's December 2018 Port Talbot piece shows a child tasting falling snow that is really what?

Actor Michael Sheen part-funded a protective screen, which was promptly attacked by 'a drunk halfwit'.

Banksy's Croydon pop-up shop Gross Domestic Product was opened in 2019 for what reason?

It did not work: the EU trademark office ruled the Flower Thrower mark was filed in bad faith and noted 'copyright is for losers' from his own book.

Devolved Parliament, sold at Sotheby's in 2019 for a then-record sum, shows MPs as what?

At four metres wide it is his largest known canvas; he posted 'shame I didn't still own it'.

Banksy's Game Changer, donated to a Southampton hospital, sold in 2021 for how much including premium?

It set a Banksy record and the proceeds went to NHS-related charities.

The escaping prisoner Banksy painted on Reading Prison in 2021 was said to resemble whom?

The 'rope' is knotted bedsheets with a typewriter tied to the end.

Banksy's 2022 mural in Borodianka, Ukraine, shows Vladimir Putin being what?

Ukraine later turned the image into a postage stamp; he made six more murals in Kyiv, Irpin, Hostomel and Horenka.

Banksy's March 2024 Finsbury Park mural used paint that matches what?

It gives a pruned tree a canopy of 'leaves'; Jeremy Corbyn was among the first visitors.

Banksy's September 2025 mural of a judge beating a protester with a gavel appeared on which building?

It was covered with metal sheeting the same afternoon and removed within two days.

Banksy's April 2026 statue Blind Patriotism was installed where?

It shows a man walking off his plinth with a large flag draped over his face.

Which message did Banksy paint in two-metre letters in the penguin enclosure at London Zoo?

In the elephant enclosure he left 'I want out. This place is too cold. Keeper smells. Boring, boring, boring.'

Whose debut CD did Banksy swap in 48 UK record shops in 2006 for his own art and Danger Mouse remixes?

Tracks were retitled 'Why Am I Famous?' and 'What Have I Done?'; some copies later sold for £750 on eBay.

Banksy placed an inflatable Guantanamo detainee on which Disneyland ride in 2006?

The doll wore an orange jumpsuit, black hood and handcuffs.

Banksy designed the cover art for which band's 2003 album Think Tank?

His mural for the Blur single 'Crazy Beat' was later partly destroyed by Hackney Council.

Banksy's 2014 Cheltenham mural of men snooping on a phone box was near which agency's HQ?

It commented on the 2013 surveillance disclosures and disappeared during building renovations in 2016.

A 2016 geographic-profiling study linked Banksy's works to the movements of which man?

The Mail on Sunday first named him in 2008; a 2026 Reuters investigation cited a signed confession from a 2000 New York arrest.

Banksy's 2007 book compiling his three earlier self-published booklets was titled what?

The stories were edited into a less provocative tone and the grammatical errors fixed for the mass market.

Which Bristol photographer sold Banksy's early work and became his agent until they parted in 2009?

After the split, Pest Control became the only point of sale for new Banksy works.

Which member of Massive Attack, a former graffiti artist known as 3D, has been identified as a Banksy friend?

Some critics claim 3D influenced Banksy, and Del Naja has periodically been rumoured to be Banksy himself.

For how much did the partially shredded Girl with Balloon resell at Sotheby's in October 2021?

That was roughly eighteen times the £1.04 million it fetched moments before shredding itself in 2018.

Which greeting-card company won a 2020 EU trademark ruling against Banksy over the Flower Thrower image?

Banksy had opened his Gross Domestic Product shop in Croydon partly to shore up his trademark claims.

Banksy's Valentine's Day 2020 mural of a girl firing a slingshot of real flowers appeared in which Bristol area?

It appeared on 13 February, the day before Valentine's Day, on the side of a house.

What was the collective title of the Banksy works that appeared across East Anglian towns in August 2021?

The seaside pieces popped up in Great Yarmouth, Gorleston, Lowestoft and Cromer.

Banksy's 2006 Well Hung Lover, a naked man dangling from a window, is visible from which central Bristol thoroughfare?

Bristol City Council let the public vote on whether it should stay, and it survived.

For how much was the doorway piece Mobile Lovers sold in 2014 to keep a Bristol youth club open?

Banksy also created merchandise for Bristol homeless charities in 2019.

Banksy's Dream Boat, shown at Dismaland, was raffled in 2018 to aid which refugee NGO?

Since renamed Choose Love, the charity took £2 guesses at the boat's weight in a Carnaby Street pop-up shop.