Following claims that Banksy has finally been identified, the Mirror takes a look at who exactly the elusive artist could be, following decades of wild speculation
For decades, Banksy has captivated admirers worldwide by shrouding his identity in mystery, but now world’s longest running game of ‘Guess Who’ may have finally come to an end – with elusive graffiti artist Banksy finally being unmasked.
A year long investigation has seen the street artist finally identified – or has he? Reuters claims it’s a Robin Gunningham, who the agency claims now goes by the moniker David Jones.
A crack team of journalists pored over every claim that artist has revealed about himself, spoke to more than a dozen insiders, and uncovered previously sealed U.S. court documents and police files in their bid to expose the artist. Mark Stephens, his longstanding legal representative, has hit back but not outrightly denied the claim, saying Banksy “does not accept that many of the details contained within your enquiry are correct.”
READ MORE: Identity of infamous street artist Banksy ‘uncovered’ following investigation
He offered no further clarification. Whilst neither confirming nor denying Banksy’s identity, Stephens implored Reuters to abandon publication, arguing it would breach the artist’s privacy, disrupt his creative output and potentially endanger him. The team narrowed down the identity by interviewing locals in Ukraine, where he painted seven murals in 2022, and showing them photographs of possible candidates.
Immigration records show a David Jones crossed the border into the war-torn country on the same date as the photographers – and that David shares the same birthday as Robin Gunningham.
Investigators also scrutinised New York arrest records from 2000, featuring what appeared to be a signed, handwritten confession from Robin after he was caught vandalising an advertisement for Marc Jacobs.
Now, we’ve taken a look who Banksy truly is, and everything known about an individual whose anonymity has become as iconic as his artwork….
Robin Gunningham
This isn’t the first time Robin Gunningham’s name has been linked with Banksy and his iconic street art.
Robin Gunningham was first unmasked by a Mail On Sunday investigation back in 2008, which claimed he was a former public schoolboy hailing from Bristol. The paper published a snap taken in Jamaica in 2004 showing a man with a bag of spray cans at his feet – identified as Mr Gunningham.
It’s also believed that Banksy once used the pseudonym Robin Banks, and in 2017, DJ Goldie referred to him as ‘Rob’ during an interview on the Distraction Pieces podcast.
A Banksy enthusiast from the area who captured the photographs revealed to the Daily Mail: “I have been going to the mural for a whole week. On Saturday there were more security fences and CCTV up and a few people putting Perspex over the artwork. I went back at 10am to go have another look at what they were doing and saw this man who looks exactly like the photo I saw 20 years ago of Banksy. I found it weird he was putting up his own Perspex.”
Speculation has also connected Banksy with Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, known by his stage name 3D, who was previously regarded as Bristol’s original graffiti artist and a trailblazer of stencil-based street art. Banksy has publicly credited the musician as an early inspiration, with the two reportedly sharing a close friendship.
Yet supporters became firmly convinced they might be the same person following a 2017 podcast where singer Goldie appeared to accidentally drop Rob’s name whilst discussing Banksy.
BBC interview
He also appeared to confirm his real name as far back as 2003 in an unearthed BBC interview.
The Banksy Story on BBC Radio 4 feaures a recording of an in-person interview with the artist that has not been heard for 20 years.
During the interview, presented by former BBC arts correspondent Nigel Wrench, Banksy discussed his 2003 Turf War show as it was being installed in an east London warehouse. The show had Banksy’s signature anti-authority themes, featuring graffitied police vans, the now iconic image of Winston Churchill with a grass Mohican and live farm animals with the Met Police’s blue-checked patterns painted all over them.
But one of the biggest moments of the interview came when the interviewer asked the artist if he could use his real name, reports Bristol Live. During the conversation Nigel Wrench asked: “Are you happy for me to use your name? I mean, The Independent has.” Banksy replied by saying ‘yeah’ before he was asked ‘is it Robert Banks?’ Banksy answered: “It’s Robbie.” The interviewer then said: “Robbie. Okay. Robbie.”
Regardless of the mystery figure’s identity, what remains certain is that Banksy emerged from Bristol in 1974, putting him at approximately 52 years old, and was part of the street art explosion that swept through Bristol during the 1980s before expanding his reach to London, LA, and New York. His estimated fortune stands at $50million (£39.6million), according to Celebrity Net Worth – although he channels much of this towards charitable causes, primarily retaining earnings from books and documentaries about his creations.
Meanwhile, Banksy boasts a star-studded fan base – the elusive artist has sold pieces to pop diva Christina Aguilera, who possesses a risqué depiction of Queen Victoria with a lady of the night. Hollywood A-lister Angelina Jolie is the proud owner of his reinterpretation of a Manet masterpiece, featuring a Caucasian family dining al fresco under an umbrella, observed by 15 famished Africans.
The enigmatic creator also lent his artistic flair to Blur’s 2003 album Think Tank, and famously orchestrated the self-destruction of his Girl With Balloon painting via a shredder in a Sotheby’s London auction room in 2018.
Sighting
Previously, a passer-by claimed he’d spotted Banksy by a mural in Finsbury Park, London in 2024.
The photos featured a man sporting short hair and spectacles, dressed in a black Nike hoodie, looking at a now-iconic painting of a life-sized woman wielding a pressure washer alongside an enormous burst of verdant foliage.
The photographer, who prefers to stay unnamed, claims he had ‘a gut feeling’ he was witnessing the enigmatic artist when he photographed the spectacled figure.
At the time, he said: “I noticed the man in a black hoodie who seemed to have finished his work hand over a box to an assistant in a grey checked flannel shirt with grey hair. He then started to climb over the fence I had a gut feeling that it could be a Banksy mural and that was Banksy himself. I quickly focused on taking pictures of him he looked at me with an expression which seemed to say ‘I’ve have been spotted’. He quickly left the scene in a black van parked near the mural’.”
Meanwhile, the owner of the mural was left unimpressed by the artwork – and suspicion that he was Banksy, after he was also wrongly identified, reports the Mirror.
In a chat with Mail Online, George admitted that he’s not exactly brimming with artistic flair, and his initial reaction to the mural was ‘what a bloody mess’. George confessed: “No, I am not Banksy. Unfortunately it ain’t me, I wish it was but I am not that lucky. When I first saw it I thought ‘what a bloody mess’ but when you see it in context with the tree, it is a really smart idea. The guy has obviously got a vision, he knows what he’s doing, would I have thought of it? Not in a month of Sundays.”
He went on to say: “I am just not artistic. You give me a hammer and some nails, I’ll make you something but a drawing no? Matchstick men I am good at. We spent a good hour laughing about it [the claim he was Banksy] this morning. No one knows who he is.”
Banksy’s last work shows a child in a beanie hat and wellingtons lying on the floor next to another person in a bobble hat who points up to the building above.
It appeared beneath the Centre Point building near Tottenham Court Road in central London, in December. The building is famous for its connection to the youth homelessness charity Centrepoint, named in protest of the empty building itself in the 1970s when it was left vacant during a housing crisis.
Banksy, whose real identity has not been revealed, has since claimed responsibility for the artwork on Instagram.
In September the mysterious artist made headlines with his mural depicting a protester lying on the ground holding a blood-spattered placard, while a judge, in a wig and gown, looms over him, wielding a gavel.
The painting appeared on an external wall of the Queen’s Building, in the Royal Courts of Justice complex. It was swiftly covered up and guarded by security staff, before work began to remove it. The art was interpreted by some as a comment on the arrest of hundreds of people for supporting Palestine Action by holding up placards at protests.
