Bristol man claims to have paid Banksy £50 for a mural, then painted over it

A Bristolian man has revealed that he hired Banksy for £50 to paint a mural, before painting over it. In an interview with the BBC, Peter de Boer described hiring the elusive street artist, whose work now fetches upwards of £1 million at auction, to help run art classes at Lawrence Weston youth centre in Bristol in the late ’90s. He also shared several photos of Banksy’s time at the youth centre, the artist’s face has been obscured to protect his identity. Read this next: New Banksy artwork in London stolen within hours of being unveiled de Boer, who was working as a senior youth worker for the area, said he was looking for local artists to inspire children in Bristol. A friend of his recommended him to reach out to a local graffiti artist who was “tagging the city”. He said he had “no idea who he was” at the time in an interview with BBC Radio Bristol. For the first workshop, de Boer said the youth club paid the secretive artist “around £50,” which “probably only covered the cost of the spray paints”. Banksy started working at the centre just as he was on the cusp of fame,...