In 2008, one of Banksy's representatives called the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery (in Banksy's hometown) and asked to be put through to the director. The museum employee who answered the phone thought it was a joke and hung up. But Banksy meant business and nine months later, the museum doors opened on an exhibition of his work. The contract he'd had the staff sign was so secret that "If it [got] out it [would be] over. Nothing [would] happen."
The exhibition ended up being part treasure hunt, part exhibition, with clusters of work obviously by Banksy combined with smaller pieces of art hidden throughout the museum. As Ellsworth-Jones notes, a critic from the Observer called the show a "sell-out in every sense – meaning it was both a crowd pleaser and the moment when Banksy gave up his outlaw past and joined the established art world."
