A new artwork has appeared in Oxford that bears some resemblance to a piece by street artist Banksy.

The picture shows Prime Minister Boris Johnson behind bars with two empty bottles and is captioned: "Outlaw Johnson".

It is in the doorway of the recently closed down Conservative Club on Between Towns Road in Cowley.

Artist Banksy is a political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain the subject of speculation.

Oxford Mail:

Reader Mark Heyes spotted the new picture.

He said: "It bears all the hallmarks in style, detail, pre planning and message."

In March a mini Banksy-esque artwork was spotted on Wytham Street in Oxford.

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The graffiti image was sprayed onto a fence panel and showed a small girl letting go of a heart-shaped balloon. 

Girl with Balloon is one of Banksy’s most copied artworks since it first appeared in 2002 in London.

Oxford Mail:

In 2018, a 2006 framed copy was auctioned at Sotheby's for £1,042,000. However, moments later it self-destructed through a hidden mechanical paper shredder in the frame.

Banksy is commonly believed to be Robin Gunningham from Bristol.

Several of Gunningham's associates and former schoolmates at Bristol Cathedral School have corroborated this, and in 2016, a study by researchers at the Queen Mary University of London using geographic profiling found that the incidence of Banksy's works correlated with the known movements of Gunningham.

In March 2021, the image of an escaping prisoner appeared overnight on the side of Reading Prison.

Two days later Banksy claimed the artwork. The former jail's next use had been disputed locally, some wanting it to be used as an arts hub, while developers proposed it could be sold to a housing developer.

Bill "Kilo" Pengelly, a legal graffiti artist who works on street-art projects with teenagers, is an expert at spotting Banksy imitations and says there has been "an explosion" in the past year.

Two key signifiers of a genuine Banksy work are a busy location and a political subject, he says.

David Lee, editor of The Jack Daw, a newsletter of the visual arts, suggested: "Ask the owner of the property and ask if it's by him because he always asks permission.

"The drawing will be reasonably competent, not brilliant, he's not a great artist. And it will be making a small jokey point about something. It's very difficult to fake that authentically. I don't doubt people will try but he'll distance himself from it."

Banksy's prints sell for thousands of pounds but he signs the authentic ones. And in the only interview he appears to have given, he said he did not care if people ripped off his work.