He is the darling of the anti-establishment art scene and no arm of the state comes in for more of Banksy’s mockery than the police.

The artist depicts officers as thuggish and rude, yet last year, when his agents thought they had located a stolen numbered Banksy print, they immediately called Scotland Yard.

Pat Davis, 71, a retired teacher and amateur art collector, was subjected to an 18-month police investigation in which her home was raided, she was interviewed under criminal caution and warned she might be charged with handling stolen goods.

The case ended only when Mrs Davis produced pictures of the print, worth an estimated £35,000, hanging on her wall in Hampstead, north London, five years before it was reported stolen in Dulwich. Detectives have concluded that far from being an art thief, Mrs Davis may be the victim of poor record keeping by Banksy and his managers.

Mrs Davis’s story begins in 2004 when she successfully bid for a limited edition print of Banksy’s Barcode as a 60th birthday present for her husband, Geoff. Mrs Davis insists she bought the signed print — numbered 78 out of 150 — for about £300 from Banksy’s then dealer, Pictures On Walls. It was delivered to the school where she worked in January 2005 and was shown to the A-level art class.


In January last year the Davises considered selling the work to finance a retirement move to Devon and contacted the artist’s new sales agency, Pest Control, for a certificate of authentication.

Five months later Mrs Davis and the print were in Devon when she noticed 18 missed calls on her phone from a friend who had been helping to move the couple’s possessions. The man had been collecting some boxes from her London flat when police swooped and spent three hours searching for the print of Barcode which, they claimed, had been stolen in 2010.

Mrs Davis said: “My first ever run-in with the police was to find myself in the middle of an art theft inquiry over a piece that we had owned for 14 years.”

The investigating officer insisted that Mrs Davis return to London for a 90-minute interview and pursued further questions by email and phone. Police accessed Mrs Davis’s bank records and said that a file was being prepared for the Crown Prosecution Service.

The inquiry ended in July when Mrs Davis’s daughter-in-law produced the photographs from 2005 and the family registered a complaint about police conduct. The investigation found no evidence that the print was stolen and raised the possibility — which will alarm art buyers — that there are two Barcode prints with the number 78/150.

A Met spokeswoman said: “Despite extensive police inquiries neither party can prove outright ownership.”

Pest Control, which says that because “Banksy pieces are created in an advanced state of intoxication the authentication process can be challenging”, confirmed that it had instigated the police investigation.

Mr Davis, 74, said: “We purchased [the print] from Banksy’s agents. That’s where the focus should be — how come there’s two with the same print number and how many more might be out there?”

This story does not match up with the other thread at all. Excludes a son whom I though was the OP completely

Just the journalists angle.... It was sent to my mother after all and as I was getting increasing stressed out with the police we played up the angle of it being hers in case there were arrests as at one stage they threatened to come to my work and arrest me. Never said I was OP completely. It was a present for my father so has been in my parents possession since 2005.. Did you see the picture of the POW embossed stamp on the print in the other thread?