Graffiti artist Banksy has pledged to help buy the former Reading Gaol, to stop it from being redeveloped as flats.
The anonymous graffiti artist has offered to match the £10m purchase price for HMP Reading by selling the stencil of a work he painted on the side of the grade II listed building in March.
Banksy is believed to have sold only one stencil before, making them the rarest part of his output. It has an estimated value of £10-15m, and is set to be sold privately to a collector without an auction.
Banksy’s offer is contingent on the Berkshire site being turned into an arts complex.
The derelict prison, disused since 2013 and famous as the place where Oscar Wilde was incarcerated, is owned by the Ministry of Justice and was first put up for sale in October 2019.
The council bid £2.6m in April last year and is lobbying to turn the jail into an arts centre. The council bid was rejected and instead the MoJ agreed an undisclosed deal with Artisan Real Estate, but the sale collapsed in November last year because of significant heritage issues on the site. A second bid from the council was rejected in May, and it was put back on the market in June.
The MoJ said that the deadline for bids had passed and it was considering those that had been submitted.
