GRAFFITI artist Banksy made an extraordinary trade-off with a band when he gave them a £200,000 painting to change the name of their group.

Simon Duncan, a 41-year-old web developer, is the drummer in a covers band that until recently was called Exit Through The Gift Shop.

But Mr Duncan's group shared the name with Banksy's film, the title taken from artwork he showed during his enormously successful exhibition in his home city of Bristol last summer.

So to secure the name for himself, the secretive artist got in touch with the band and offered to paint them a new backdrop for their gigs if they would consider changing their name.

Under an agreement they became Brace Yourself, and to their astonishment Banksy sent a painting to Mr Duncan's London home, instantly making them £200,000 richer.

But while other bands might be quick to cash in, Mr Duncan and his friends are going to keep it – and want to put it on display.

The artwork – a black and white painting of the Grim Reaper driving a dodgem, with the band's new name on the front – was dropped off by a van driver who had no idea what he was carrying.

Mr Duncan told the Evening Post: "It is incredible. When I opened it my heart didn't stop racing for about three hours.

"When we saw the painting we could not believe it. It is the size of a double bed, for a start. It is weird, the freakiest thing, but we couldn't be more grateful and are very excited.

"It is an honour to own something painted by Banksy and we are going to keep it. What a guy – he is fantastic."

Mr Duncan started the band with friends in 2006, 18 months before he turned 40, as part of a midlife crisis.

He said: "We had three or four months of emails from someone saying he was Banksy, but we didn't know if they were genuine.

"So we traced them back to a YouTube account that had Exit Through The Gift Shop videos. We had lost the domain name as we had forgotten to renew it, and when we phoned up to ask to buy it back, the man said no, that we wouldn't be able to afford it, and that he was the agent for the person who had the domain name."

The band had the painting valued at auction house Sotheby's – which put the £200,000 price tag on it – and quickly got it insured.

Mr Duncan said: "A man from Sotheby's came over to see it in my loft. He said to me, 'This is surreal. I have just been valuing an 18th-century portrait in a stately home, but it is not as valuable as this'."

The band has taken photos of it and had it framed, and now it is safe within the vaults at art auctioneers Christie's.

Mr Duncan said: "We don't want to keep it in storage because it is costing us a lot, so we would like to put it on show somewhere."