New investigation claims to reveal Banksy’s real identity and his link to Robert Del Naja
A new investigation has claimed to reveal Banksy’s true identity after decades of speculation.
For many years, Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja has been rumoured to be the mysterious Bristolian graffiti artist, but this has now seemingly been put to bed. However, the investigation does claim he is an accomplice of the anonymous artist.
The report from Reuters, published on March 13th, claims to have uncovered his name as Robin Gunningham thanks to a police report filed in New York in 2000, before Banksy had become world-famous.
He was charged with defacing a Marc Jacobs billboard on 675 Hudson Street, which was later reduced to a misdemeanour charge of disorderly conduct following a confession. As a result of this evidence, the investigation concluded that Gunningham is Banksy.
Reuters wrote of the police filing, “These included a hand-written confession by the artist to a long-ago misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct – a document that revealed, beyond dispute, Banksy’s true identity.”
Gunningham was previously named by the Daily Mail as allegedly being Banksy’s real identity in 2008, which was denied at the time by his manager.
Now, the new report alleges that Gunningham changed his name to David Jones, allowing him to fly under the radar by using one of the most popular names in the United Kingdom. However, it is unknown whether he still uses this alias.
Another key facet of the investigation relates to murals appearing in Ukraine in 2022, which Banksy later confirmed to be his on Instagram.
During this time, a source told the publication that Del Naja, who appears to have assisted the artist, had been spotted at the Kyiv Hilton, which they later verified by immigration records that confirmed he was in Ukraine when the murals were created.
Additionally, a local woman had told Reuters she served coffee to the two men who created the mural, and upon being shown photographs of potential people, confirmed that one of the men she saw was Del Naja.
Upon discovering that Gunningham had allegedly changed his name, Reuters confirmed from immigration records that a David Jones, born on the same day as Gunningham, reportedly entered Ukraine on October 28th, 2022, and left on November 2nd, 2022, which is also when Del Naja arrived and left the European country.
In response to the report, Banksy’s lawyer Mark Stephens told Reuters that his client “does not accept that many of the details contained within your enquiry are correct”.
Stephen also argued that the report was a privacy violation, stating Banksy’s anonymity “protects freedom of expression by allowing creators to speak truth to power without fear of retaliation, censorship or persecution.”
Reuters has defended its right to publish the report, stating there is a “deep interest in understanding the identity and career of a figure with his profound and enduring influence on culture, the art industry and international political discourse”.
