Who is Banksy? New investigation claims to have uncovered artist’s identity

For more than three decades, Banksy’s identity has remained a well-kept secret.

The street artist rose to prominence in the 1990s and is famous for his spray-painted murals with anti-authoritarian and anti-war messages, which have appeared at various sites around the world.

His distinctive graffiti and striking public artworks have captured global attention, but his personal life and identity remain shrouded in mystery.

The discussion around the artist’s identity has been reignited after an investigative report uncovered fresh claims about who the real Banksy is.

Celebrities, including Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, Gorillaz founder Jamie Hewlett and even Art Attack host Neil Buchanan, have all been accused of being the real Banksy.

However, there is one name that has been brought to attention once again, suggesting he is the real identity behind the world’s most secretive figures.

Who does the new investigation claim Banksy is?

Former ‘public schoolboy’ Robin Gunningham has been thrown into the spotlight again following fresh allegations he was the man New York police arrested in 2000 after reports someone had defaced a billboard on Hudson Street.

Reuters launched a new investigation to track down Banksy’s true identity after his well-known stencil artwork was found on a building in Ukraine, prompting the outlet to find out how he was able to travel to the country to create his art.

One key piece of information suggests Gunningham is the true identity behind Bansky.

In September 2000, New York Police Department arrested a man after he defaced a billboard atop a building on 675 Hudson Street, New York City.

Police documents show a handwritten note confessing to the incident, signed by Gunningham.

However, the name itself has long been speculated, after the report claimed Gunningham may have changed his legal name to David Jones in 2008.

Those claims appear to be backed by Banksy’s former manager, Stephen Lazarides, who said he ‘killed’ Gunningham’s name years ago.

‘There is no Robin Gunningham,’ he said when asked about the artist’s identity.

‘The name you’ve got I killed years ago.’

Refuting the allegations, Banksy’s long-time lawyer, Mark Stevens, said the artist ‘has decided to say nothing’.

He neither confirmed nor denied Banksy’s true identity, claiming that identifying the elusive artist would harm the public.

He added that working ‘anonymously or under a pseudonym serves vital societal interests’.

However, this is not the first time Robin Gunningham has been named as the real Banksy.

Gunningham, described as a ‘former public schoolboy brought up in middle-class suburbia’, has been a likely contender for years, according to Mail on Sunday.

The paper claimed to have exposed him as the graffiti artist after a year-long investigation with interviews with former schoolmates, friends, enemies and even family.

A study of locations of Banksy’s art, correlated with Gunningham’s known movements, appeared to support this.

What do we know about Banksy?

Banksy emerged as a street artist in Bristol in the early 1990s.

It is thought he was born in the Gloucestershire town of Yate in the 1970s, starting his artistic journey in the nearby city with a politically engaged music scene.

As part of Bristol’s DryBreadZ Crew, he was influenced by other figures in the Underground Scene like 3D, also known as Robert Del Naja, a member of Massive Attack.

By the 2000s when he appeared to move to London, Banksy had swapped freehand designs for stencilled ones, allowing him to produce pieces more quickly.

Already the most famous street artist in the UK, he started turning graffiti into high art favoured by the wealthy, with exhibitions in Britain and abroad.

He has popped up with new pieces stealthily created in public places around the world ever since, including the barriers of the West Bank.

Many of his murals call for peace and poke fun at authority and inequality, featuring characters like rats, police and children.

How does Banksy make money?

The secretive artist has called commercial success ‘a mark of failure’ and encouraged people not to buy his work.

But with an estimated net worth of more than £15 million, according to MailOnline, Banksy must make his bucks somehow.

And it’s not from selling his most famous artworks found on outside walls.

When those are up for auction, it’s usually landlords and art dealers who take the profits.

The artist’s piece Love is in the Bin – which consists of his painting Girl with Balloon partially shredded – sold for £18.5 million at auction in 2021.

An entire section of wall was removed from a building in Lowestoft, Suffolk, so owners Gary and Nadine Schwartz could sell another of Banksy’s work privately.

Rumours it had sold for £2 million sparked outrage among residents of the seaside town where people had flocked to view the mural, ‘Crowbar Girl’.

Banksy instead makes money from selling prints of his iconic pieces, rather than the originals themselves.

These range from unsigned, unnumbered pieces costing £400 to £800, to £40,000 or even £130,000 limited runs, according to Bristol-based artdealer Huw Lougher, industry publication Artspace reported.

Celebrities like Christine Aguilera, Kate Moss and Bono have bought Banksypieces over the years.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt paid £1 million for a collection of Banksy artworks in 2007, Yield Gallery reported.

Just five years later, Jolie spent another £200,000 on a Banksy piece at his exhibition in Los Angeles, the Evening Standard reported.

Such exhibitions, which have taken place from LA to London, are another key source of Banksy’s income.

Huge crowds flocked to his hometown for the Banksy v Bristol Museum show in 2009.

For Dismaland, Banksy took over a derelict seafront lido in Weston-super-Mare in 2015.

Who else is suspected of being Banksy?

Accusations have been thrown left, right and centre in the search for Banksy’s true identity.

One suggestion is that Banksy isn’t a man at all, but a woman who leads a collective, according to Canadian artist Chris Healey in the HBO documentary ‘Banksy Does New York’.

But most people put forward as the ‘true Banksy’ are men, some of whom have been wrongly arrested as a result.

Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja has faced suspicion for years, particularly after identifying himself as a personal friend of Banksy.

Other would-be sleuths have pointed the finger at Neil Buchanan, host of the beloved CITV show Art Attack.

Social media users noticed a pattern of Banksy pieces appearing in locations where the presenter had performed his music.

Buchanan denied the claims in 2020, with a spokesperson saying he had ‘spent lockdown with vulnerable members of his family’, the BBC reported.

​Even Gorillaz founder Jamie Hewlett has come under suspicion after a ‘forensic expert’ found a ‘J Hewlett’ was linked with every company known to be connected to Banksy.

Others include Paul Horner, from Liverpool, who was accused of being Banksy by an American website claiming he’d been tracked down and arrested for vandalism and other offenses.

But the claim turned out to be a hoax, and Banksy’s publicist denied the artist had been arrested.

Richard Pfeiffer, from Brooklyn, was arrested by police who believed he had drawn a Banksy image he was actually admiring in Manhattan.

He was able to prove the pen he had with him did not match the piece and the charges were dropped.

A British teen claimed a man called ‘Robin Banks’ gave him a print signed by Banksy on a train in 2015, claiming it was worth £20,000, but this has not been verified.

Although Robert Del Naya has firmly denied claims he is Banksy, it’s possible the ‘real’ Banksy shares his first name.

In 2017, rapper Goldie referred to Banksy as ‘Rob’ while discussing art in a podcast with Scroobius Pip.

A lost BBC interview with Banksy in 2003 appears to confirm this.

In it, a BBC reporter asked Banksy if he is called ‘Robert Banks’, to which Banksy replied: ‘It’s Robbie’.

Gunningham’s identity was thought to have been exposed after retired builder George Georgiou, then 67, found himself at the centre of a Banksy identification storm.

In March 2024, George was pictured helping to install Perspex to protect the artist’s tree mural in Hornsey Road in Finsbury Park, London.

People thought he bore a striking resemblance to Gunningham.

George Georgiou rubbished the claims, saying he didn’t have an artistic bone in his body and that his son owns the building on which the tree was painted, so he was helping to protect it.

A version of this article was first published on May 24, 2024.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

MORE: My London cinema is ‘one of the greatest in the world’ with £3 tickets

MORE: Mum awarded £5,000 over ‘too small’ Cartier bracelet that Harrods refused to take back

MORE: What I Own: We saved £40,000 in a year and bought our £440,000 London home