Building with forgotten Banksy on outside wall hits the market

A building which features an early mural by mysterious and elusive guerrilla artist Banksy is going under the hammer next month.

Titled The Mild Mild West, the mural is painted on the side of a building which is home to a number of rental houses and empty shops in Bristol.

It was inspired by an incident in 1999 when riot police clashed with partygoers in a warehouse on Winterstoke Road and it's believed to be one of Banksy's earliest works.

The artwork depicts a teddy bear throwing a Molotov cocktail at police officers in response to violence.

The building - complete with the mural - will go to auction on November 20 for £750,000.

The building's owner bought the property for £55,000 in 2000, after Banksy painted the mural.

The property is made up of two four-bedroom, HMO-licensed maisonettes that were previously rented to students for £2,750 and £3,000. 

Jim Paine, the owner of the record shop next door, said he held the ladder while the Bristol-born artist painted the wall.

In 2012, he wrote in Banksy's Bristol: 'We did it in daylight, over three days. I held the ladder for him and kept lookout.

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'He wasn't happy with the coppers after doing his first draft, and if you look closely, you'll see he's adjusted the outlines of the policemen. Banksy's a perfectionist.

'I love the way the teddy looks slightly wobbly, slightly ungainly… he looks kinda docile. It's a simple piece, but there's so much to read into it.'

Mr Paine was one of those at the warehouse party 25 years ago. He said the crowd that night at Winterstoke Road 'were assaulted by the police, along with members of the sound system' who were playing. 

He said it 'marked the beginning of a more hardline approach from the police, using violence as a method of breaking up the parties'. 

He added: 'Banksy's first design had a building in flames, with a looter fleeing the inferno with a loaded shopping trolley. But then I started talking to him about the episode on Winterstoke Road. That was what gave him the idea for the piece.

'I said that, as far as social expression went, we felt pretty oppressed. We were ordinary, fluffy, party people, and we were being bullied by police with riot shields and truncheons. 

'The teddy bear was his idea. A teddy bear with a Molotov cocktail in his hand – it was showing a mix of hard and fluffy that was the free party scene.

Auctioneer Hollis Morgan said they expect 'enormous interest' in the building  'because he's a local boy'.

A block of flats in Finsbury Park were painted by Banksy earlier this year.

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They are now estimated to be worth £1.3m by their owner, who bought them for £400,000 in 2012.

Sadly, the tree mural was defaced after just three days - with vandals hurling white paint across the new north London artwork before a local authority erected a metal security fence.

The damage was revealed after the street artist earlier confirmed he was behind a mural which appeared overnight on the side of a block in Islington.

The artwork in Finsbury Park shows green paint behind a bare tree to resemble foliage, with a stencil of a person holding a pressure hose depicted next to it.

Locals said they felt 'proud and delighted' at the thought of the anonymous artist choosing their street for his latest mural when it emerged- though there were concerns their rents could now 'skyrocket'.

Last year, a brand new Banksy was stolen from a south London street in December less than an hour after it was revealed to be genuine.

The artist confirmed the artwork - a traffic stop sign covered with three military drones - was his in an Instagram post shortly after midday.

The revelation led to a stream of locals descending on the site and taking photos of the installation on their phones.

But at around 12.30pm, the peaceful scene was shattered by the arrival of two men, one of whom balanced precariously on an Lime e-bike while hurriedly hacking the sign down with bolt cutters.

The rider of the e-bike, who asked to be referred to only as Alex, said he 'watched in awe' as the man 'bashed' the sign with his hands while balancing on the saddle.

The man removing the sign, who was wearing a red jacket, fled with it after just 60 seconds after onlookers shouted at him to stop. He left the bolt cutters behind.

The extraordinary scenes unfolded at the intersection of Southampton Way and Commercial Way in Peckham close to a zebra crossing.

Banksy's works have previously sold for millions of pounds at auction.