Banksy mural that could fetch $300,000 'almost got painted over'

Eytan Rosenberg had no idea that the man he let paint a mural on the side of his family’s Hollywood petrol station was the darling of the art world.

He had never even heard of Banksy, when the elusive British street artist stencilled 'Flower Girl'on the brick wall of the station in 2008.

“He introduced himself, I shook his hand,” Mr Rosenberg recalled. “I was busy, didn’t really take much more time, went back to work.”

Now, the 9x8ft artwork depicting a young girl with a basket of flowers and a security camera perching over her like a vulture is going under the hammer today and could fetch as much as $300,000 at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills.

It will be one of five auctioned pieces that Banksy created on plywood and concrete walls and doors in Berlin and London.

The works by the provocative artist who shuns the spotlight were on display this week alongside stage costumes worn by famous rockers at the gallery that specializes in celebrity memorabilia.

Mr Rosenberg, now well aware of the reputation of Banksy, painstakingly removed the artwork and installed it in a sturdy aluminium frame when he sold the filling station last year.

He joked during a recent interview that the stencil was almost gone just a few days after it was finished.

He said one of his employees called to say the station had been tagged with graffiti and Mr Rosenberg told him to paint over it immediately. Then he recalled the conversation with a friend of a friend – the Briton who wanted to paint his wall.

“So I called him back and said: ’Don’t touch it!’,” Mr Rosenberg said of the employee. “It almost got painted over. I ran down to the station. Before I even got there, there had to have been 50 people taking pictures of this thing.”

Mr Rosenberg had dozens of security cameras at the petrol station, but the tape was mysteriously blank when Banksy was working.

Banksy, who refuses to reveal his full identity, began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol. He is known for his silhouetted figures and spray-painted messages.

The other pieces being auctioned were created from 2002 to 2004, when few people had heard of Banksy’s witty, anti-capitalist, controversial work. Then came the 'Exit Through The Gift Shop' documentary in 2010.

“All of a sudden that really put him on the map. And he’s still reusing these images,” said Michael Doyle, consignment manager at Julien’s Auctions.

Banksy’s work has caught the eye of A-list Hollywood celebrities such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who recently bought a smaller Banksy piece for $1m.