Banksy's Amazing Indoor Paintings

Although primarily known for his outdoor street graffiti, Bansky (an anonymous English graffiti artist whose real name may be Robert Banks) has also produced a number of indoor paintings as well. Possibly born in Bristol in 1974, Banksy began as a freehand artist before switching to stenciling around the year 2000; his anti-war, anti-establishment and pro-freedom graffiti images began springing up on city walls in the late 1990's. Although he has given many interviews and even published several books, Banksy's true identity remains unknown. Because he is so elusive, it can only be speculated that Banksy produces his stencils by using computers, because they are so intricate and realistic.

In 2004 he produced a series of £10 note spoofs substituting Princess Diana's head in place of the Queen's (changing the text where it said "Bank of England" to "Banksy of England") and decorated a corridor at the Carlton Arms Hotel in New York City. In 2006, Banksy sold an original painting of Queen Victoria as a lesbian to Christina Aguilera and sold a set of six silk-screen prints depicting model Kate Moss in the style of Andy Warhol's pictures of Marilyn Monroe through Sotheby's auctionhouse for £50,400. His stencil of a Mona Lisa with green paint dripping from her eyes also sold at the same auction for an obscenely high amount.

In addition to producing street graffiti, indoor paintings and freehand drawings, Banksy is also allegedly responsible for pulling a number of high profile stunts. He supposedly climbed into a penguin enclosure at London Zoo and wrote "We're bored of fish" in letters stretching seven feet high and spray-painted the words "This is not a photo opportunity" on a number of spots that are, in fact, notorious places for photo opportunities. In August 2006, Banksy replaced 500 copies of Paris Hilton's debut CD with his own cover art--he renamed the tracks "Why am I Famous?" and "What am I For?", and altered the images of Paris so that she appeared topless, or with a dog's head replacing her own, and in September 2006 he dressed an inflatable doll up as a Guantanamo Bay detainment camp prisoner and placed the doll on Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride.