Banksy's identity "revealed" in new investigation
Legal representatives for Bansky have denied the claims, insisting that probes into the street artist's identity could "put him in danger"
The identity of elusive street artist Banksy has reportedly been revealed following a year-long investigation by Reuters.
Speculation over the true identity of the artist has been ongoing for decades, with various claims around the artist's connections to Massive Attack and Bristol. The news agency now alleges that Banksy is in fact a man named Robin Gunningham, who has reportedly changed his name to David Jones.
Read this next: Mysterious new artwork suspected to be a Banksy appears in London
Reuters' investigative team claims to have pinpointed Jones as a candidate for Banksy's true identity through examination of US court documents, police files and photos, and interviews with "dozens" of insiders and residents of Ukrainian towns where a string or murals appeared in 2022.
The news agency claims that upon examining a "hand-written confession" by the artist for a misdemeanour charge of disorderly conduct, it became clear "beyond dispute" who Banksy is. Reuters also pointed to a 2008 investigation from The Daily Mail, which also alleged that Robin Gunningham was Banksy.
Travelling to Horenka, Ukraine, where Banksy's "bathtub" mural appeared in 2022, Reuters' investigative team heard from a resident that "two men" painted the mural. A reporter claims to have shown the resident images of alleged associates of Banksy before "her eyes widened", at a picture of Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja.
Read this next: Banksy brings the streets into the art gallery in Taipei
Another source told Reuters that they had spotted the Massive Attack frontman, who has long been thought to be the real Banksy, at the Kyiv Hilton around the same time the mural appeared. The team confirmed with immigration officials that Del Naja had entered Ukraine on October 28, 2022.
Banksy's lawyer Mark Stephens denied the allegations, issuing a statement that insisted his client does not accept that "many of the details" in Reuters' story "are correct." The publication claims that Stephens "urged" it not to publish the report, and that doing so would "violate the artist’s privacy, interfere with his art and put him in danger".
[Via: Reuters]
Megan Townsend is Mixmag's Deputy Editor, follow her on X
