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It is 10 years to the day since Banksy secretly took over an entire museum in his hometown, filled it with his stimulating art and opened its doors to an unsuspecting public.
Banksy's free issue against Bristol Museum, which has been the most ambitious to date, has attracted more than 300,000 visitors in 12 weeks.
Banksy has since made headlines this Sotheby's has had a torn paint joke, opened the Walled Off Hotel overlooking the Israeli-Palestinian barrier, and was nominated for an Oscar for his 2010 Exit through the Gift Shop.
He used his works to comment (often ironically) on issues such as the UK's decision to leave the EU after Brexit, the environment, the Syrian refugee crisis and over-tourism.
And who can forget about his 2013 "Better Out Than In" residency in New York and the 2015 Dismaland amusement park in Somerset, England?
Discover the promo for Banksy vs. Bristol Museum here:
It's the whole decade.
But it was in 2009, when he returned to Bristol, in the south-west of England, where he grew up, that Banksy captivated the imagination of the world with the surprise show organized at the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery.
Its representatives did not respond to HuffPost's request to comment on the lasting impact of the exhibition.
But the Bristol-based street artist, John D, who participated in organizing the event for four days, hailed him for generating "an extreme cultural and economic capital. "for the city and contributed to a" tenfold "of local growth. artists and the continued success of Upfest, the annual street art festival (which takes a break in 2019).
"The exhibition was an instant success, with queues every day and in all weathers," he told HuffPost this week.
Barry Batchelor – PA Images via Getty Images More than 300,000 people attended the free show Banksy vs. Bristol Museum.
"One could say that the show has become more of a" cultural event "than an art show," noted D'oh. "People stayed in hotels and boarding houses, ate in pubs and restaurants and made the city the first tourist destination in the UK that year."
Most of Banksy's hundred or so pieces, ranging from animatronics to paintings and sculptures, were located nearby, on the ground floor of the museum.
An article on the theme of Michael Jackson / Hansel & Gretel, describing the controversial singer-songwriter appearing to draw children home with sweets, was featured in the middle of the exhibition after Jackson's death:
Other works were slyly hidden among the gallery's existing exhibitions in less visited galleries, such as this one:
"While some were more obvious than others, having to look closely at all the exhibits to find guerrilla works helped to raise awareness of the exhibits they had seen before or would otherwise have ignored." added D'oh.
Banksy's Paint-Pot Angel remains as a reminder of this historic event:
Matt Cardy via Getty Images
Like "Decentralized Parliament", which was temporarily returned to the museum in March to mark the "Brexit Day" – the day the UK was supposed to leave the European Union, but did not:
Check out more photographs from the Banksy Vs. Bristol Museum 2009 here:
Matt Cardy via Getty Images
Matt Cardy via Getty Images
Matt Cardy via Getty Images
Ben Birchall – Pictures PA via Getty Images
Ben Birchall – Pictures PA via Getty Images
Matt Cardy via Getty Images
Matt Cardy via Getty Images
Matt Cardy via Getty Images
Matt Cardy via Getty Images
Matt Cardy via Getty Images
Matt Cardy via Getty Images
Ben Birchall – Pictures PA via Getty Images
Ben Birchall – Pictures PA via Getty Images
Ben Birchall – Pictures PA via Getty Images
Ben Birchall – Pictures PA via Getty Images
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