A Russian performance artist has been detained in Paris after setting fire to the front of a branch of France’s central bank.

Pyotr Pavlensky is known as one of the most intriguing figures of the contemporary Russian art scene.

His latest stunt came a month before his world premier exhibition dedicated to Post-Soviet protest art in the Saatchi gallery along with Russian punk group Pussy Riot.

Earlier this year, Pyotr Pavlensky, said he received political asylum in France after he was accused of rape in Russia. Accusations which he denies.

Performance artist Pyotr #Pavlensky sets fire to bank in Paris https://t.co/ECoSorS20tpic.twitter.com/HwlKiMmnt2 — The Art Newspaper (@TheArtNewspaper) October 16, 2017

Making ‘Banksy’ look tame, it’s not the first time the artist has been in the news.

He was jailed for seven months in 2015 after setting fire to the doors of the headquarters of the Russian federal security agency in Moscow.

But his most shocking action was in 2013, when he nailed his scrotum to the cobblestones of Moscow’s Red Square, saying it was a metaphor for Russian political apathy.