Has Banksy come to Tooting? (From Sutton Guardian)

Has Banksy come to Tooting?

10:51am Monday 14th July 2008

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Guerrilla artist Banksy may have chosen Tooting for his latest prank as residents discovered this Laurel and Hardy mural last Friday.

It features a stencil of Oliver Hardy from the old comedy films menacingly holding a machine gun alongside the movie catch phrase "Another fine mess!"

“People were nonchalantly walking past it. When I saw it I immediately thought it was a Banksy"

Lynda Bennett, local DJ

Local DJ Lynda Bennett, 41, who lives in Otterburn Street, discovered it at 9am on the side of the doctor's surgery in Stella Road.

She said: "People were nonchalantly walking past it. When I saw it I immediately thought it was a Banksy because of the way he shades the faces. It's quite exciting."

Only two days before, local resident Mark Shaw, who fronts 80s band Then Jerico, saw two men in guerrilla outfits holding a placard reading "Gordon Banks, original guerrilla", which he now thinks was a coded announcement of the piece.

Lazarides Gallery in Soho, which looks after Banksy's work, has denied all knowledge of it, but a local expert said the figure bears all the artist's hallmarks.

John Bloxham, who owns a gallery in St John's Hill, said: "It's political and it's got the Banksy statement. It could be about the Iraq war. It would be fantastic if we did have a Banksy in Wandsworth."

"However, the writing is leaving me a little bit cold. It is flourishy, but if you look at Banksy's other stuff it is either stencilled or it's simple, like a child's."

If genuine, it will be the first time the international artist has visited the area, and could fetch more than £100,000 at auction.

This week a newspaper claimed the anonymous artist was really Robin Gunningham, 34, a former public schoolboy from Bristol, although this has not been confirmed.

Banksy works has painted walls in London, Los Angeles and even the Israeli West Bank under the cover of night and famous patrons include Brad Pitt and Christina Aguilera.

He recently showed work at the Cans Festival, a graffiti art exhibition stretching along the disused tunnel in Leake Street, Waterloo.

• Are you the artist behind this mural? Call 0208 330 9537 or email eharding@london.newsquest.co.uk.

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