The identity of Invader, whose mosaic works on Hong Kong streets were removed by the government in 2014, remains a mystery, that’s despite the fact he has been arrested many times.
According to the French artist, he has been put behind bars around 20 times in half a dozen countries.
“But I’ve never stayed more than 48 hours in a cell. Generally people understand that what I am doing is not a crime but art. And it is difficult to keep in jail someone accused of doing art,” he tells 48 Hours ahead of his exhibition, “Wipe Out”, at PMQ in May.
“In Paris many cops are fans of my work and they let me do it!”
With all that fingerprinting, the fact that it is known he studied at one of the Écoles des Beaux Arts, and that another street artist Thierry Guetta (controversial protagonist of a film by British street artist Banksy) is his cousin, you would have thought it would be fairly easy to find out his birth identity.
But it is still, apparently, a secret.