Graffiti artist Banksy leaveslatest work inside HMV shop

Graffiti artist Banksy placed the works – a painting on a canvas and another stencilled on a rusty oil can – in a branch of HMV in London’s Oxford Street earlier this week.

Staff had been unaware the artist – whose works sell for tens of thousands of pounds and have been collected by Angelina Jolie and Kate Moss – was leaving his creations. Instead, they had thought a window display of posters were to be placed in the shop to plug a DVD release of Banksy’s film Exit Through The Gift Shop.

The 8ft by 4ft canvas features a baseball-capped child praying in front of a paint-daubed stained glass window. It appeared overnight and was found by staff on Monday morning.

The work – plus the painted drum with a brick placed upon it – has attracted crowds and now a security officer has been hired to guard it.

HMV’s head of display Mark Robertson said: “We knew a representative was meant to be coming in overnight to install a large poster display for the DVD of Exit Through The Gift Shop in readiness for its release on Monday, but we certainly did not expect to find a full-blown Banksy waiting for us when the shutter went up in the morning.”