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Banksy, the ever-elusive artist well-known for his hidden identity, may be forced to reveal his name after art collectors sued him for refusing to authenticate a print. Nicky Katz and Ray Howse sued Banksy’s company, Pest Control, for what they say is a refusal to authenticate their print of “Monkey Queen,” which they acquired for around $38,500. If the lawsuit makes it to court, the artist — who’s only revealed his first name, Robbie — might have to give up his full identity. The print, which features a Queen Elizabeth lookalike as a monkey with a crown and jewels, only...

A lost BBC interview with Banksy – one of the earliest known radio interviews with him - has been unearthed. And with it, possibly the secretive artist’s identity. Celebrated Bristol-based graffiti artist Banksy seemingly revealed his real name in a newly unearthed interview from 2003. The interview – which was never released until now – is being shared for the first time as part of a special episode being broadcast for BBC Radio 4’s The Banksy Story. The famous artist – who has for decades remained anonymous – spoke to former BBC arts correspondent Nigel Wrench to mark the opening...

A man poses under a stensil of a gull about to swoop down onto a carton of chips, the subject of a graffiti artwork bearing the hallmarks of street artist Banksy on a wall in Lowestoft on the East coast of England on August 8, 2021. - Banksy, Britain's most famous street artist, on August 13 confirmed what many had already suspected -- that he is indeed the author of several works that have recently appeared in British seaside towns. An Instagram video clip just over three minutes long, and titled "A Great British Spraycation", shows the elusive artist taking...

SFGATE reporter Michelle Robertson on Banksy's critique of an art world he actively participates inPhoto of Starting at $40 a ticket and reaching $70 on weekends, the new — unauthorized — “Art of Banksy” touring exhibit has landed at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts, and tickets are already selling out quickly. Brought to the city by Starvox Exhibits, the same group responsible for the “Immersive Van Gogh” show that came to San Francisco in 2021, “The Art of Banksy” brings together more than 100 artworks by the secretive, anonymous artist, with the value of the pieces totaling more than...

A New York City woman believes she may have scored two Banksy artworks for just $120 after coming across a mysterious art sale inside a subway station. Colleen Alexander, 26, took to TikTok last week to share a video explaining how she bought the works that could have been created by the elusive British graffiti artist. “I just can’t stop shaking at the chance that this may be real,” Alexander exclaimed at the beginning of her 3-minute TikTok video, which has now been viewed more than 6.6 million times.

Christopher Walken, star of the new streaming series “The Outlaws,” did what many art fans consider sacrilegious act of vandalism: He painted over an original Banksy! A spokesperson for the BBC iPlayer series confirmed the 78-year-old film icon’s act of destruction in a statement. “We can confirm that the artwork at the end of The Outlaws was an original Banksy, and that Christopher Walken painted over that artwork during the filming of this scene, ultimately destroying it,” they told BBC.

The Italian Coast Guard responded to a distress call Saturday from a rescue boat funded by the British street artist Banksy, which requested assistance after taking 219 migrants onboard in the Mediterranean. "The Italian Coastguard have evacuated 49 of our most vulnerable guests," a post on the vessel's Twitter account said Saturday evening. The tweet said that Italian authorities also took the body of a person who had died prior to being rescued by the boat's crew on Friday. The "Louise Michel," a former French naval boat, helped to rescue 89 people on Thursday, according to a spokesperson for the...

LONDON (AP) — Art prankster Banksy has struck again. A work by the elusive street artist self-destructed in front of startled auction-goers on Friday, moments after being sold for 1.04 million pounds ($1.4 million). In an Instagram post Saturday, Banksy claimed the dramatic artistic payoff had been years in the making. The spray-painted canvas “Girl With Balloon” went under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London, fetching more than three times its pre-sale estimate and equaling a record price for the artist. Then, as an alarm sounded, it ran through a shredder embedded in the frame, leaving half the canvas hanging...

A local councillor isn't happy. Earlier this week, Hull residents spotted a new mural on the city’s Scott Street Bridge – a black and white image of young boy waving a sword with a colander on his head, sat on top of a graffiti tag with the caption: ‘Draw the raised bridge’. The similarity to street artist Banksy‘s previous work prompted speculation that the piece was his, which was confirmed when he posted images of the artwork on his official Instagram account yesterday (January 26). Local Conservative councillor John Abbott has spoken out about the piece, calling for it to...

A mural in Calais by the British street artist Banksy, whose works can sell for hundreds of thousands of euros, has been painted over by the owner of the building because he said the house was starting to look shabby and needed an upgrade. The stencil was a version of the painting The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault, showing a group of desperate survivors on a raft after a wreck. It was given a modern, refugee-themed twist — a nod to the notorious “Jungle” refugee camp in Calais that housed thousands of refugees hoping to get to Britain...

Officials at the Menil Collection don't know why a man spray-painted Pablo Picasso's "Woman in a Red Armchair" at the museum, but the act wasn't caught just on surveillance cameras. It also was captured by a bystander with a smartphone camera and subsequently posted on YouTube with a caption naming the alleged perpetrator as a young artist... The damaged artwork, with the spray paint barely dry, was rushed down the hall to the museum's conservation lab, where chief conservator Brad Epley quickly began its repair. The 1929 painting, one of nine by Picasso owned by the Menil, has "an excellent...

It's just a little graffiti, and yet its existence has caused a firestorm of legal wrangling as to who actually owns the work and the building that once housed it. Seems rather odd, until you take a closer look at who is responsible, where it was created and why it exists in the first place. The Location Of all the derelict buildings filling the city of Detroit, one of the most famous is the former Packard automobile plant. As much as the city of Detroit would like to do something about the the 3,500,000-square-foot facility, nobody seems quite sure who...

Angelina Jolie has spent £200,000 on works by British guerrilla artist Banksy at his high-profile show in Los Angeles. The glamorous actress's purchases included a white bust with a bleeding bullet hole in the forehead. Banksy's US exhibition hit the headlines earlier this week when it emerged that a live elephant which had been spray-painted as part of the display was scrubbed down by officials after complaints from animal activists. Banksy's elephant loses its paint job Jolie, who attended the opening of the show with boyfriend Brad Pitt, spent £120,000 on a painting called Picnic, which depicts a white family...

Hundreds of Paris Hilton albums have been tampered with in the latest stunt by "guerrilla artist" Banksy. Banksy has replaced Hilton's CD with his own remixes and given them titles such as Why am I Famous?, What Have I Done? and What Am I For? He has also doctored pictures of her on the CD sleeve to show the US socialite topless and with a dog's head. A spokeswoman for Banksy said he had doctored 500 copies of her debut album Paris in 48 record shops across the UK. She told the BBC News website: "He switched the CDs in...

Secretive "guerrilla" artist Banksy has decorated Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. The nine paintings were created on the Palestinian side of the barrier. One depicts a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. Banksy's spray paint picture on security wall Banksy said he was threatened by Israeli security forces Banksy is well known for his art stunts around the world Banksy's spokeswoman Jo Brooks said: "The Israeli security forces did shoot in the air threateningly and there were quite a...