A potentially undiscovered Banksy has come to light in Bristol, spotted last week on an old concrete block in the city centre.
In a serendipitous set of circumstances, the artwork was stumbled upon by Dug Out founder, John Nation. The youth club acted as the stomping grounds for street artists and is where Banksy, Inkie and Cheo cut their teeth.
Nation, who runs Bristol street art tours, shared the discovery on Facebook, saying that he found Banksy’s Flower Thrower Peaceful Protester on the concrete block and he suspects that it could well have been there for the past 15 to 20 years. He speculated that it’s been overlooked because the block has either been stowed away in a storage depot or no one looked that closely at it over the years. Like, at all.
“Is it real or fake? Now thats [sic] the question,” he wrote in his Facebook post. “First of all there’s the test spray spot, some over spray to edges… signs it was rushed. Its also a good representation of his work. Looking faded and not of a high standerd [sic] quality wise. Usually fakes are noticably [sic] derivative and lacking detail.”
The block has since been covered for protection, and is due to be moved to a safe location. As Nation points out, the block is owned by Bristol city council, so once it’s authenticated, it’ll be up to them to decide what to do with it next.
This post originally appeared on Gizmodo UK, which is gobbling up the news in a different timezone.