Banksy Finally ‘Unmasked’ After Years-Long Investigation – The Hook news

The report goes further than earlier attempts to name Banksy. Gunningham had already been identified as a likely candidate in reporting dating back to 2008, but that allegation remained contested and wrapped in uncertainty. Reuters said that after tracing Gunningham’s movements and revisiting archival material, it concluded not only that he was the artist who adopted the Banksy persona in the 1990s, but that he later disappeared from public records because he took on a new legal identity. According to Reuters, that name was David Jones, one of the most common male names in Britain, a choice the agency said would have helped him remain hidden in plain sight.

Part of Reuters’ case involved events in Ukraine in 2022, where Banksy confirmed a series of works in Kyiv and towns damaged by Russia’s invasion. The agency reported that a David Jones with the same date of birth as Gunningham entered and left Ukraine on the same days as Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack, a musician who had himself long been the subject of Banksy rumours. Reuters said that finding supported its conclusion that Del Naja was not Banksy, but may at times have worked alongside him. That strand of the investigation sought to explain how Banksy could have been connected to work in Ukraine despite an apparent absence of travel records under the name Robin Gunningham.

The findings have not been accepted by Banksy’s camp. Reuters said the artist did not reply to its questions and that Pest Control, the body that authenticates Banksy works, said only that the artist had “decided to say nothing”. His lawyer, Mark Stephens, told Reuters that Banksy “does not accept that many of the details contained within your enquiry are correct” and urged the agency not to publish, arguing that revealing the artist’s identity would violate his privacy, interfere with his work and put him in danger. Stephens also said anonymous or pseudonymous work could serve wider public interests by protecting freedom of expression, especially on political and social subjects.