Bids for a painting attributed to Banksy, the graffiti artist, closed at £208,100 last night in an online auction.

The work, depicting an artist putting the finishing touches to the word “Banksy” was spray-painted in red on a wall in Portobello Road, West London. It was offered on the eBay auction site, which took bids until 7pm last night. Close to the deadline, 70 people were said be competing for it.

The buyer was promised the painting and the wall, on condition that the problem of how to get them delivered would be the purchaser’s.

Luti Fagbenle, the owner of the property on which the graffiti is sprayed, said: “I am selling the wall because I can’t really justify owning a piece of art worth as much as it is.”

Banksy, from Bristol, whose identity has never been revealed officially, is best known for his politicised stencils on public buildings.

The artist made his name with a series of subversive stunts, including smuggling a dead rat into the Natural History Museum in West London and mounting it as an exhibit. He also placed a cave painting of a man pushing a shopping-trolley in the British Museum where, he claimed, it went unnoticed for three days.

Mr Fagbenle said that the artist had employed people to put up scaffolding on a Sunday morning, when Portobello Road market was in full swing, so that he could paint the work unseen. “A few hours later, the scaffolding went down and there it was,” he added.

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