[Mrluvaluva]

Banksy pulls off his most audacious stunt yet... a secret exhibition in Bristol museum


Banksy has pulled off his most daring stunt yet by staging his biggest-ever British exhibition in complete secrecy.

The covert graffiti artist snuck into Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery and replaced many of the artefacts on display there with 100 pieces of his own work, including a burnt-out ice-cream van.





The spray-painted van, which sits under a giant melted cone, appears alongside dozens of sculptures, oil paintings and his trademark stencils from today.

Despite Banksy's international notoriety, the exhibition remained a closely-guarded secret with only two officials at the council-owned museum aware of the installation.





The reason the museum was closed was even kept secret from top council officials.

The elusive, iconic artist said he chose Bristol to stage it because he wanted to 'give something back' to the city.





In a rare statement Banksy said: 'The people in Bristol have always been very good to me - I decided the best way to show my appreciation was by putting a bunch of old toilets and some live chicken nuggets in their museum.

'I could have taken the show to a lot of places, but they do have a very nice cup of tea in the museum.'

He added: 'This is the first show I've ever done where taxpayers' money is being used to hang my pictures up rather than scrape them off.'





The exhibition - called Banksy Versus Bristol Museum - consists of more than 100 items and will run for three weeks.

One sculpture is of a riot police officer astride a child's rocking horse while another is an animatronic display featuring chicks as chicken nuggets.

An original Damien Hirst painting has a giant stencil of a rat painted over it and part of Banksy's 'Bog Henge' - made from portable toilets at the Glastonbury Festival - also appears.

A collapsed brick wall lies across the atrium's floor beneath dozens of stencilled subversive satirical and political messages.





Fans eagerly awaited an announcement after the artist replaced his official website with a typically unsavoury image of an ice-cream dropped in a pile of dog mess.

Alongside the image is written: 'Banksy Summer Show Opens June 13'.

The exhibition marks the return of the artist to his hometown. Dozens of his satirical and iconic sketches have appeared across the city. It is hoped it will draw thousands of tourists to the city over the summer.

Banksy's last major public show was in a Los Angeles warehouse in 2006. It lasted for three days and attracted dozens of A-list celebrities.

Christina Aguilera bought an original of 'Queen Victoria As a Lesbian' and two prints for £25,000 but none of the works in Bristol will be up for sale.





Banksy's identity remains unconfirmed, although it is believed he could be 35-year-old former public schoolboy Robin Gunningham.

The exhibition, which opened today, is free and will run for three weeks.



Source


So. What are your thoughts? Does it interest you? Does it insult your intelligence? Does it make you think? What statements do you think his pieces evoke?