Lancashire teenager left "flabbergasted" after selling her modest Nissan Micra to Banksy for £400

A Lancashire teenager who sold her battered Nissan Micra for £400 was left "flabbergasted" to discover it is being used to recreate one of Banksy's most famous artworks.

Matilda River Walden, 17, put the ageing motor up for sale after her family realised they had too many vehicles cluttering up their home near Lancaster. But she was stunned when the organisers of a Banksy exhibition in Manchester got in touch asking to buy the 25-year-old 'banger' - so they could recreate one of the mysterious artist's famous murals.

Her mum Jayne Walden, 53, said: "At first I thought yeah, yeah, it can't really be for a Banksy exhibition - but when we spoke to the organiser we realised it was genuine. One man's junk is another man's treasure."

The unusual request came after Matilda advertised the car online with a brutally honest listing warning buyers not to waste her time. She wrote that they were selling the car as they had too many vehicles and added: "Look, we're not friends. You're not coming here to have a day out."

The blunt advert caught the attention of organisers behind 'The Mystery of Banksy - A Genius Mind', an international exhibition opening at Depot Mayfield in Manchester this weekend. They had been hunting for a silver Nissan Micra similar to the one featured in Banksy's viral rhino artwork, which appeared on a London street as part of a series of animal-themed murals last summer. Matilda initially thought the enquiry must be a joke.

She said: "I didn't really believe it. I thought, that can't be true. That's why I asked for some of the payment upfront."

The teenager had originally planned to keep the car and transform it into a rally vehicle.

But she added: "We had so many cars that it was getting a bit overrun - and we thought, something has to go. We thought we'd advertise it and if it sells, that's great - but if not, it doesn't matter because we like the car."

The modest Micra is about to become a centrepiece in an art installation recreating Banksy's cheeky rhino scene. It shows a painted rhinoceros climbing onto the back of a small silver car with a traffic cone perched on its nose like a horn.

Matilda travelled down to Manchester to see preparations for the exhibition and said the experience still feels "surreal". The young performer will even get to watch the moment her old car is turned into artwork.

She said: "I'm going to get to see the car being sprayed - I've never seen anything like that before. It will be interesting to see it coming to life."

When the exhibition opens, she expects the moment of seeing the finished installation to be a strange one. She said: "I'll probably just look at it and think - that's my car."

Away from her unexpected brush with the art world, Matilda is already pursuing an ambitious creative career. The home-educated teen performs as a singer, dancer and actor and has released two albums. She now hopes her unusual car sale could even become the subject of a future documentary project.