Never-before-seen photos believed to show Banksy emerge ‘showing the elusive artist creating his biggest artwork long before he was famous’

Never-before-seen photos which are believed to show Banksy painting his biggest ever artwork have emerged – taken long before he was a household name.

The elusive artist painted the side of a 17-tonne circus lorry at a party near Malaga in Spain in 2000 while he was still ‘under the radar’.

The vehicle became known as The Turbozone Truck, and later went up for auction with a guide price of £1m to £1.5m after it was authenticated by his studio.

Now photos have emerged of a painter thought to be Banksy working on the graffiti after they were re-discovered by a fellow partygoer who says he spoke to the artist at the time.

The photographer – who wishes to remain anonymous – snapped the photos at around 6am in the morning on New Years Day in 2000 after a party in the Alpujarras mountains in southern Spain.

The photographer said: ‘I used to spend a lot of time in Bristol. Our friends told us about this party that was going on in Spain and we thought why not?

‘At the time we were very aware of Banksy’s stuff when it was popping up, but he was still quite under the radar.

‘Then we were at the party and saw this guy painting – the three of us just turned to each other and said it’s got to be Banksy!

‘Little did we know at the time he would go on to become one of the most famous artists in the world.’

The photographer says he approached the man and asked him if he was the mysterious street artist, and says the man confirmed he was Banksy.

He said: ‘It wasn’t much of a conversation – I remember we said how we’d seen some of his work in Bristol, as far as I remember, he had been flown over from Bristol.’

The artwork was officially titled ‘The Turbozone Truck (Laugh now but one day we’ll be in charge)’ and is thought to be the largest-ever work created by Banksy.

In 2019 it was put up for auction with a guide price of £1.5 million but failed to sell.

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The lorry featuring Banksy’s artwork spent years travelling throughout Europe and as far away as South America as part of the transport for Turbozone’s Cinderella show.

It is also featured in Banksy’s official book, Wall and Piece, which was published in 2006 and authenticated by the artist via his studio, Pest Control.

Despite the resurfaced images purporting to show Banksy clearly showing a painter at work, the secretive artist’s face is still concealed. 

The mystery around his identity continues despite investigations claiming to have unmasked him.

The most recent theory saw fans disappointed after a man photographed outside a new mural on Hornsey Road in Finsbury Park, north London, turned out to be 67-year-old George Giorgiou.

The retired buildre was initially believed to be Robin Gunningham, a former public schoolboy from Bristol whose link to Banksy was first revealed by a Mail On Sunday investigation in 2008.