www.thisisbristol.co.uk/homepage/20-things-knew-Banksy-Bristol/article-1295107-detail/article.html1: In the first week of the exhibition, the museum received 60 school visits โ compared to the usual three.
2: The animals that make up the Unnatural History part of the exhibition were originally displayed in a pet shop window in New York in 2008. It caused uproar among New Yorkers who thought wild animals were being kept in cages.
3: During the course of the show, the now famous queue has been entertained by buskers including, guitarists, singers, magicians, and jugglers.
4: Members of the public have filled 12 volumes of visitors' books through the summer. The most mysterious signature purports to be that of Michelle Obama. A City Council spokesman denied that any secret visit was arranged for the wife of the US president.
5: The queuing system was changed twice. At first staff thought the queue would simply fill the forecourt. In its second incarnation it stretched down Park Row, but then the zigzag method was installed on University Road. The hand stamping system used to prevent queue jumping had to be altered midway through, when it was realised that the stamp had been forged by some determined queue jumpers.
6: Only three people have fainted in the queue during the summer.
7: One woman is reported to have been nine months pregnant when she was attempting to queue. Benevolent museum staff allowed her to jump to the front โ partly because they were concerned about the idea of having to deliver the baby.
8: Banksy's work is so eclectic, during the initial set-up of the show, Banksy's PR woman Jo Brookes mistakenly thought two dehumidifiers in an empty case were a piece of Banksy's artwork. She was eventually put right by a member of the museum's regular staff.
9: Enormous quantities of rubbish were amassed in the queue โ an average of 13 large industrial bins were filled each day.
10: On one occasion the centre of the queue was attacked by angry wasps โ staff administered first aid to a dozen wasp stings.
11: The Banksy exhibition has appeared in every version of Vogue in the world โ from New York to Paris.
12: The number of visits to the exhibition has now broken the 300,000 mark, matching the museum's own, impressive annual number of visits.
13: During the course of the summer, the city council received angry letters โ one from somebody who believed only true Bristolians should be allowed in, another from a woman who thought they should implement a permanent ink method to ensure people are only allowed in once, and one elderly lady wrote asking to be allowed into the museum to see everything in there other than Banksy (she promised not to look at the main attraction).
14: Of the 100 works in the exhibition โ 78 had never before been seen in the UK โ making this Banksy's biggest ever British exhibition.
15: One of the exhibits is a genuine Damien Hirst, which is in the process of being overpainted by one of Banksy's little rat characters. Hirst donated the painting โ a series of colourful geometric dots โ for Banksy to "complete".
16: One of the anterooms features Jerusalem by Tawfiq Salsaa. Carved from native olive trees, this intricate scale model of the city was completed entirely from memory by the Bethlehem craftsman โ Israel's security blockade has left him unable to visit the holy city for the past 12 years. A monumental achievement in itself, the piece was purchased by Banksy and "improved", with the addition of 284 toy soldiers (and one terrorist).
17: Bristol City Council's former director of museums and galleries Kate Brindley led the organisation of the Banksy exhibition โ a secret operation that took 10 months, during which just a select handful of fewer than half a dozen people knew about the plans.
18: Banksy made two additions to the exhibition during the summer โ a portrait of Michael Jackson opening the door of a fairytale house to Hanzel and Gretel was added after the singer's death. A suicidal Ronald McDonald figure also appeared on the outside of the building one August night.
19: Weston-super-Mare artist Adam Mclevey sneaked his own piece of artwork into the exhibition. Staff failed to notice that Adam's monkey picture wasn't a real Banksy for four days.
20: A mysterious man threw 20 beach balls into the queue on one day in early August, and challenged them to keep the balls up as long as possible. They managed a couple of minutes over three hours.