An old Volvo truck has sold in England…for $NZ1.8million! That's because it's more a work of art than a working truck.
The 4x2 FL-6 17-tonne box-bodied Volvo just happened to be painted by legendary British street artist Banksy almost 20 years ago….before he became famous.
The truck came up for sale at an auction held by Bonhams last month at The Goodwood Revival – an annual motor racing festival celebrating cars from 1948 to 1966.
Bidding opened at 600,000 pounds ($NZ1.17million) for the large piece of graffiti-style art – which Bonhams says Banksy, then an obscure graffiti artist, was asked to paint at a New Millennium party in Spain. 
The giant blank canvas was supplied by the Turbozone International Circus – a travelling Spanish theatre company. According to Bonhams, Banksy started painting it during the New Year's Eve party, then completed it over the next two weeks.
The truck, which had worked all around Europe for the previous 11 years, then toured Europe and South America with Turbozone.
Banksy gave the work the name: "Turbo Zone Truck (Laugh Now But One Day We'll Be in Charge)." It's his largest-ever work, at 80 square metres.
The work's described as "a fascinating record of how the artist's calls for anarchy and social change were already central to his work. The images on the truck show the silhouette of a male figure swinging a hammer towards metal cogs. The background depicts flying monkeys and red stars with the word circus stencilled across the back end of the truck."
The other side of the truck shows a group of soldiers (or a SWAT team) running away from an elephant-like cannon. 
Says one critic: "The over-riding message is one of anarchy: 'It's us against them and we're going to win.' The cumulative result is a resounding statement – both a direct call to arms against the establishment and the transformation of a mundane service vehicle into extraordinary work of art."