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Street artist Banksy finally identified, report says

Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News on

Published in Entertainment News

The ubiquitous street artist known only as Banksy for the past 30 years may have finally been identified.

An extensive Reuters investigation concluded the man responsible for wall murals spotted on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean were created by English artist Robin Gunningham.

That publication reached its conclusion after interviewing a dozen people familiar with the 51-year-old artist and studying his work in the U.S., Great Britain, France and Ukraine. Reuters also used media dispatches, court records and reports from law enforcement to identify Gunningham.

One piece of evidence that reportedly pointed to the Bristol native was a September 2000 New York City police report claiming authorities stopped a suspect who was in the process of defacing Meatpacking District billboard at 4:20 a.m. That report included a handwritten confession.

One of many steps Gunningham allegedly took to hide his identity was changing his name to David Jones in 2008. That name is so common in England that searching for it would leave sleuths acting on a tip chasing endless possibilities.

There had long been suspicion that musician Robert Del Naja of the band Massive Attack, who like Gunningham is from Bristol, might have been Banksy. Reuters said its researchers ruled out that possibility.

Gunningham hasn’t responded to the accusatory report pointing at him. His company, Pest Control, told Reuters the artist “has decided to say nothing.”

 

The artist’s lawyer reportedly said without elaborating that Banksy took issue with “many of the details” included in the publication’s research without confirming or denying the veracity of the story.

He also argued that maintaining his anonymity allows his client to express himself freely. Many of Banksy’s works appear on public and private spaces where permission may not have been granted.

Banksy acknowledged in a 2010 LA Weekly interview that what he does could be interpreted as criminal.

“I’m not so interested in convincing people in the art world that what I do is ‘art’,” he claimed. “I’m more bothered about convincing people in the graffiti community that what I do is really vandalism.”

British tabloid the Daily Mail contended in a 2008 report that Gunningham appeared to be artist known as Banksy, yet the artist continued to live and work in obscurity.


©2026 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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