{"id":541386,"date":"2026-03-17T02:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T02:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/541386\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T02:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T02:19:10","slug":"banksys-real-name-revealed-in-26-year-old-police-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/541386\/","title":{"rendered":"Banksy\u2019s \u2018real name revealed in 26-year-old police report\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A news agency says it has uncovered the identity of Banksy, the world\u2019s most famous graffiti artist, after an investigation led to a 26-year-old police report.<\/p>\n

The artist, who has left his mark on the world\u2019s streets for three decades, has been named by Reuters as Robin Gunningham, after it discovered records of a misdemeanour committed in New York in 2000.<\/p>\n

It has long been speculated that this is the real name of Banksy, who emerged from the Bristol art scene to become one of the world\u2019s most famous artists.<\/p>\n

The investigation by Reuters also states that Gunningham then changed his legal name to David Jones, one of the most common names in Britain.<\/p>\n

Under this name, it was reported that the artist had travelled to Ukraine, where he painted murals. Immigration records cited by Reuters said that this David Jones had left Ukraine in October 2022 on the same day as Robert del Naja, a founding member of Massive Attack, who is known to have moved in similar circles to Banksy.<\/p>\n

\"PeopleA work by Banksy in KyivGleb Garanich\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\"AAnother painting in the village of Horenka, UkraineGleb Garanich\/Reuters<\/p>\n

It said that the date on Jones\u2019s passport matched that on the documents of Gunningham.<\/p>\n

Banksy\u2019s real identity has been a conundrum<\/a> ever since he appeared on the British art scene.<\/p>\n

Those who know his real identity, such as his former manager, Steve Lazarides, who subsequently fell out with the artist, have repeatedly preserved his anonymity.<\/p>\n

Reuters defended its investigation, saying that there was a public interest in understanding the identity and career of any public figure who influenced discourse.<\/p>\n

Banksy\u2019s stencil paintings featuring social commentary<\/a> have become some of the 21st century\u2019s highest value artworks.<\/p>\n

According to Reuters, Banksy had \u201cdecided to say nothing\u201d in response to its findings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AA work by the artist in Bristol, where he began his careerRebecca Naden\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Mark Stephens, Banksy\u2019s lawyer, told the agency that Banksy did not accept that \u201cmany of the details contained within your inquiry are correct\u201d and said that publishing the report would violate the artist\u2019s privacy, interfere with his art and put him in danger. <\/p>\n

Banksy had first been \u201cidentified\u201d as Gunningham in a Sunday newspaper in 2008, although his manager at the time denied it.<\/p>\n

According to the Reuters report this month, however, Robin Gunningham was arrested in New York in September 2000 and confessed to a misdemeanour after a Manhattan billboard for Marc Jacobs clothing was defaced.<\/p>\n

According to what Lazarides wrote several years later, the \u201cartist\u201d had \u201cdoctored the Marc Jacobs Men billboard so that the model had goofy teeth\u201d and drew a \u201cgiant speech bubble\u201d.<\/p>\n

The bubble was, however, empty. According to Reuters, this was because Gunningham had been caught by police officers.<\/p>\n

\"AThe defaced Marc Jacobs billboard in Manhattan<\/p>\n

It said that police documents and court filings, including a handwritten confession, identified Robin Gunningham as the culprit.<\/p>\n

The confession states: \u201cThe evening the night of September 17th I had been out drinking at a nightclub with friends when I decide to make a humorous adjustment to a billboard on top of the property on Hudson st.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA mural on the remains of a house in Gaza that was destroyed by Israeli shelling in 2014Suhaib Salem\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The agency said that Gunningham later posted $1,500 bail in exchange for his passport and felony charges were reduced to a misdemeanour charge of disorderly conduct. He was subsequently fined $310 and completed five days of community service.<\/p>\n

Reuters said that it had used geolocation tools as well as image comparisons for its investigation into the artist\u2019s real identity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A news agency says it has uncovered the identity of Banksy, the world\u2019s most famous graffiti artist, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-541386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}