it is quite wrong.

Banksy is an activist who combines humour and anarchy. A recent article by Peter Kennard in the New Statesman makes it plain that Banksy’s Christmas trip to Bethlehem - in which he joined local artists to paint murals on the West Bank barrier - was no stunt.

He is part of a conga line that has included the Situationists (whose graffiti slogans such as 'Beneath the paving stones - the beach!' and 'Live Without Dead Time' powered the Paris revolt of 1968), the Icelandic artist Erro, Zap Comix, and Jamie Reid who did the cover of the Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen.

Will the work last? After all, little is heard or seen of the once feted graffiti artists of the 80s nowadays, with the exception of Keith Haring, stylistically a different animal, who is in Bonhams as a father figure. But there are reasons for that.

Their explosions of colour, form, raw energy looked magnificent in loaded contexts, as on grimy urban walls, but transferred to unthreatening canvas on gallery walls, they leaked energy.

The work at Bonhams - and not just Banksy's, but pieces by Faile, Andrew McAttee and D*Face - come from a different place. Their antecedents tend to be graphics, advertising, comic books, so they are self-contained, and transfer well to gallery walls or the walls of the bien pensant bourgeoisie who are among their targets.

Indeed a striking thing about the London show last summer in which Banksy was paired with Andy Warhol, was how good one of the Banksies which had been most crudely ripped from its setting looked. Banksy is more than a passing fad, you can count on it.