Graffiti artist David Choe set for Facebook windfall

David Choe painted the first Facebook offices in 2005

A US graffiti artist who painted Facebook's offices is set to become a multi-millionaire when the social network begins trading as a public company.

David Choe, who first spray-painted the walls of Facebook HQ in 2005, accepted shares in payment for his work.

Now the site is planning to float on the stock market, its thought his share could be worth around $200m (£126m).

<link> <caption>Writing on his blog,</caption> <url href="http://davechoe.blogspot.com/" platform="highweb"/> </link> Choe said he was the "highest paid decorator alive".

Although he had initially thought the idea of the social network was "ridiculous and pointless", the artist decided to take the stock option instead of cash "in the thousands of dollars" according to <link> <caption>the New York Times</caption> <url href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/technology/for-founders-to-decorators-facebook-riches.html?pagewanted=2&_r=3" platform="highweb"/> </link> .

Choe's payout could be worth more money than auction house Sotheby's attracted for its record-breaking $200.7m (£127m) sale in 2008 for a collection of work by Damien Hirst.

The Korean-American artist, 35, was first asked to paint erotic murals for Facebook's first office in Palo Alto, California, by the site's then-president, Sean Parker.

The site's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, later asked Choe to paint "tamer" art for its second office in 2007.

However art from the original headquarters was cut out from the walls and is on display at other Facebook offices around the world.

Choe - whose work can now be seen in galleries all over the world - is currently painting the site's new offices in Menlo Park, California.

The artist, who began spray-painting in his teens, created the cover art for Jay-Z and Linkin Park's multi-platinum album Collision Course in 2004.

In 2008, he also painted a portrait of the then-Senator Barack Obama - a picture that now hangs in the White House.