When you think of street art, it's likely the first person that comes to mind is Banksy — but who really is Banksy?
The graffiti artist has worked under a pseudonym for years, something which is lawyer, Mark Stephens, says 'protects freedom of expression by allowing creators to speak truth to power without fear of retaliation, censorship or persecution'.
A lot Banksy's work has political references, one example being 'Flower Thrower'. The iconic 2003 stencil depicts a rioter with their face covered in a position as if they were about to throw something.
Typically the thing people would be throwing is something like a molotov cocktail, but in Banksy's stencil the man is holding a bouquet of flowers instead.
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Banksy's work has cropped up all over the world and he took his graffitiing to Ukraine in 2022.
After this, Reuters started an investigation into the mysterious artist in a bid to try work out his real identity. Following the years-long investigation, the news outlet released a report on Friday (March 13) where it 'revealed' just who Banksy is.
But how exactly did Reuters seemingly work out what the artist's real name is...
The Ukrainian murals
Banksy's work in 2022 was a catalyst to the investigation and where Reuters started doing its digging.
It's long been rumored that Banksy is Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja (a fellow graffiti artist) and he was indeed in Ukraine at the time the graffiti work was done.
Joining Del Naja was photographer Giles Duley — but there was a third person spotted with Del Naja and Duley when they were seen exiting an ambulance in Ukraine with stencils and spray cans. That person is believed to have been Banksy.
Name change and passport
Sources confirmed to Reuters that Del Naja and Duley were recorded to have entered Ukraine around the time the murals were done. They are two names that long been linked to Banksy and his work, while another candidate was Robin Gunningham.
There was no evidence that Gunningham had entered Ukraine with them, however. David Jones did though.
On the day Del Naja and Duley entered Ukraine (October 28, 2022), a 'David Jones' also crossed the border at the same location. Per Reuters investigation, this David Jones had the same birthday as Gunningham. It's now thought that Gunningham legally changed his name to David Jones – an extremely common moniker in the UK – back in 2008, around the same time The Mail on Sunday 'unmasked' Banksy as Robin Gunningham.
Seemingly confirming that the artist had changed his legal name, Banksy’s former manager, Stephen Lazarides, said to Reuters: "There is no Robin Gunningham. The name you've got I killed years ago."
New York arrest
In September 2000, a man named Robin Gunnigham was arrested for defacing a billboard. Police records show that Gunningham penned a confession, which he signed.
The records also show that Gunningham gave an address of 160 E. 25th Street in New York, which is the Carlton Arms Hotel.
The artist had lived at the hotel for some months in he lead up to his arrest, says Reuters. Reportedly the Carlton Arms Hotel let artists stay there for free in return for decorating their rooms.
Archived photos from the hotel's website show a room that had been decorated in 1997 by Banksy, whom they credited the work to 'Robin Banks' – a play on robbing banks which also uses the artist's first name.
He later shortened this moniker to Banksy, and the rest was history.
Niamh Shackleton