A street artist claims he painted a graffiti piece attributed to Banksy which sold at auction for £250,000. The artwork, which depicts a rat with a paintbrush next to the words 'Never liked this Banksy', was bought by a collector on a Channel 4 TV show.
The creation once sat beneath a Banksy painting called Love Plane on the wall of a building in Liverpool city centre. Both pieces were cut out and removed in 2016 to be featured in a 'street art gallery' that has not materialised.
An anonymous Merseyside street artist, Silent Bill, told the Liverpool Echo he was behind 'Never liked this Banksy'. "The piece was done in 2013/14 as a tongue-in-cheek homage to Banksy in reference to his earlier 'Never liked the Beatles' piece. It's known within circles in the street art scene that the 'Never liked this Banksy' piece is by me," he said.
"When the Banksy pieces were initially cut from the wall it was proposed they were to be preserved in Liverpool's very own street art museum. Naturally, this never occurred and they ended up in the hands of Sincura, a concierge and lifestyle service. The pieces were a gift from Banksy to the people of Liverpool and were never intended to be cut out and become rich people's trophies."
He added: "The seller should be giving the money away to house the homeless and the buyer should be over the moon that they own a piece by me. And just for the record, I always liked this Banksy."
The sale was featured in new Channel 4 series The Greatest Auction, hosted by AJ Odudu, on Tuesday (May 9). Robin Barton bought the artwork for £250,000 despite a lack of clarity about its provenance.
Mr Barton won a bidding war against an art collector phoning in from Dubai. The starting bid was £35,000.
Speaking on The Greatest Auction, one critic who examined the piece observed the painted letters didn't "seem in the same style that he (Banksy) normally does". Another added he was not "a thousand per cent" sure if it was a Banksy or not, but some experts believed it was.
Mr Barton told the programme: "I got what I wanted. That was my limit... when it got up to the 200, I thought maybe I got this wrong, maybe they are hungrier than I am. I wouldn't have gone a penny over that so I got it and I'm taking it home."
