"Live Rat" (Liverpool Biennial 2004) Stencil and Spray Paint on onto the door of a British Telecom junction box Framed in a plexiglass box 75 x 100 cm. (29,5 x 39,3 Inch) Excellent and Authentic PROVENANCE - Auctioned at Hessink’s on 25 May 2021 and sold to a private European collector - See for a similar stencil Hessink’s Auction on 26 January 2021, Lot 2 PUBLICATIONS - Banksy: Cut it Out (2004), page 26, published by AK Press - Banksy: Cut & Run (2023), page 22 shown the stencil used by Banksy to create this artwork - Listed in the Catalogue Raisonne of Banksy’s Street Art (2023), as No. 759. NOTE - This spray painted artwork onto the door of a British Telecom street junction box in Liverpool’s City centre in 2004 is called ‘Live Rat’ and forms part of the artist’s informal contribution to Liverpool’s Biennial of the same year. The creation of the artwork, was timed to coincide precisely with the September 2004 Biennial, which Banksy spectacularly gate-crashed by painting a host of works throughout the neighbouring areas, sending a powerful message to the organisers, attendees and 41 exhibiting artists. The rat on the stencil is better known as ‘Gangsta Rat’ and was spotted in at least three separate Liverpool locations in 2004 and also in London that same year. In 2004, Banksy released an edition of 500 signed and unsigned (350/150) Gangsta Rat prints and in 2015 he re-released the series in some different colour ways at his Dismaland Exhibition with a total run of 257 prints. Gangsta Rat remains one of Banksy’s most iconic images,