Private Collection, Canterbury Purchased from Pictures on Walls, 2005 This work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from Pest Control

Happy Chopper was created for the occasion of Banksy’s Santa’s Ghetto, a temporary art gallery located on Oxford Street, next to the Tottenham Court Road Tube Station. The artist told The Guardian that he felt the spirit of Christmas was being lost, and the aim of this 23 day show was to exhibit some of the world’s finest underground artists. Happy Chopper was intended to draw attention to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and the poverty of the West Bank. The original Happy Chopper appeared as a sprayed mural on a wall outside London’s Whitecross Street Market, Islington in 2002. Since then, Banksy has revisited his helicopter motif many times, making Happy Chopper an iconic part of his repertoire.

HAPPY CHOPPER The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It’s people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre village - Banksy