Reuters Investigation Claims To Reveal Who Banksy Really Is, And How He Hid In Plain Sight

CHAPTER 1: AN INITIAL CLUE

HORENKA, Ukraine – In late 2022, an ambulance pulled as much as a bombed-out condominium constructing on this village outdoors Kyiv. Three folks emerged. One wore a grey hoodie, one other a baseball cap. Each had masks overlaying their faces.

The third was extra simply identifiable: He was unmasked, and had one arm and two prosthetic legs, witnesses advised Reuters.

The masked males carried cardboard stencils from the ambulance and taped them to what had been an inside wall of an condominium earlier than the Russians obliterated the place. Then they pulled out cans of spray paint and set to work. An absurd picture appeared in minutes: a bearded man in a tub, scrubbing his again amid the wreckage.

Its creator was Banksy, one of many world’s hottest and enigmatic artists, whose id has been debated and carefully guarded for many years. Banksy is finest recognized for easy but refined stencil work with searing social commentary. His work has generated tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in gross sales over time. As soon as an annoyance to authorities who seen him as a vandal, he has turn into a British nationwide treasure. In a single survey, Brits rated him extra well-liked than Rembrandt and Monet. In one other ballot, his “Woman with Balloon” portray was voted the favourite piece of art work Britain has produced.

Some critics imagine Banksy’s anonymity is as vital to his work as stencils and paint. The British press has run many articles over time that attempted to infer his id. Nonetheless, Banksy and his interior circle gained’t discuss it. Some have signed non-disclosure agreements. Others hold quiet out of loyalty, or concern of crossing the artist, his followers and his influential firm, Pest Management Workplace, which authenticates his work and decides who will get the primary likelihood to purchase Banksy’s newest items. When the tub mural and different Banksy items started showing in Ukraine, Reuters puzzled in regards to the artist and the way he had pulled off the stunt. Horenka was lower than 5 miles east of Bucha, the place Russian forces had left behind a minimum of 300 civilians useless seven months earlier.

So we got down to decide how Banksy did it – and who he actually is. Weeks later, a reporter visited Horenka with a photograph lineup of graffiti artists usually rumored to be the artist and confirmed the images to locals to see if anybody acknowledged him. Not lengthy after, we heard {that a} well-known British musician – one of many folks usually whispered to be Banksy – had been noticed in Kyiv, giving us a concept to pursue.

Reuters interviewed a dozen Banksy-world insiders and specialists. None would touch upon his id, however many stuffed in particulars about his life and profession. We examined pictures of the artist, most of which obscured his face however contained crucial info. We later unearthed beforehand undisclosed U.S. courtroom information and police stories.

These included a hand-written confession by the artist to a long-ago misdemeanor cost of disorderly conduct – a doc that exposed, past dispute, Banksy’s true id.

And within the course of, we realized how and why the person behind the title Banksy vanished from the general public report greater than a decade in the past.

Reuters introduced that man with its findings about his id and detailed questions on his work and profession. He didn’t reply. Banksy’s firm, Pest Management, mentioned the artist “has determined to say nothing.”

His long-time lawyer, Mark Stephens, wrote to Reuters that Banksy “doesn’t settle for that most of the particulars contained inside your enquiry are appropriate.” He didn’t elaborate. With out confirming or denying Banksy’s id, Stephens urged us to not publish this report, saying doing so would violate the artist’s privateness, intrude together with his artwork and put him at risk.

For years, Stephens wrote, Banksy has “been subjected to fixated, threatening and extremist behaviour.” (He declined to explain these threats.) Unmasking Banksy would hurt the general public, too, Stephens wrote.

Working “anonymously or below a pseudonym serves very important societal pursuits,” he wrote. “It protects freedom of expression by permitting creators to talk fact to energy with out concern of retaliation, censorship or persecution – significantly when addressing delicate points akin to politics, faith or social justice.”

Reuters took under consideration Banksy’s privateness claims – and the truth that a lot of his followers want for him to stay nameless. But we concluded that the general public has a deep curiosity in understanding the id and profession of a determine together with his profound and enduring affect on tradition, the artwork business and worldwide political discourse. In so doing, we utilized the identical precept Reuters makes use of in all places. The folks and establishments who search to form social and political discourse are topic to scrutiny, accountability, and, generally, unmasking. Banksy’s anonymity – a deliberate, public-facing, and worthwhile function of his work – has enabled him to function with out such transparency.

As for the danger he would possibly face of retaliation or censorship, Britain’s authorized and political institutions appear snug with Banksy’s messages and the way he delivers them.

On September 7, for instance, he stenciled a provocative piece on the outside wall of London’s Royal Courts of Justice, a traditionally protected constructing. It depicted a decide in wig and robes bashing an unarmed protester with a gavel. Two months earlier, the federal government had designated the pro-Palestinian group Palestine Motion as a terrorist group. The day earlier than the portray appeared, about 900 folks had been arrested at protests in opposition to the ban.

Stephens didn’t reply to a query about whether or not the mural was tied to that crackdown. In any occasion, Banksy’s painted protest in opposition to British justice seems to have gotten a go to this point.

Underneath native legal guidelines, graffiti is a criminal offense, with penalties starting from fines and neighborhood service to (not often) jail time. The day after the mural went up, London’s Metropolitan Police mentioned it was investigating “a report of legal harm” to the constructing. An investigation stays below approach, the Ministry of Justice mentioned. The mural was power-washed off the wall, abandoning a shadow of the picture. In response to a Freedom of Info Act request, the ministry mentioned that as of December, the federal government had spent £23,690 eradicating the piece. The work continues, it mentioned: Subsequent, specialist contractors will use laser gear on the stain.

The justice ministry declined to say whether or not Banksy was penalized or paid compensation. Stephens had no remark. Some artists have questioned if Banksy, as soon as thought of anti-establishment, now enjoys particular therapy from Britain’s powers that be. In 2014, Vice Media requested: “Why Is Banksy the Solely Particular person Allowed to Vandalize Britain’s Partitions?” The story quoted David Velocity, a road artist who ran a British graffiti collective. “It’s very a lot one rule for him and one other rule for everybody else,” Velocity advised Vice. “When road artists do it, it’s vandalism. When Banksy does it, it’s an artwork piece.”

Contacted by Reuters, Velocity praised Banksy as “a extremely vital artist of contemporary occasions.” But he nonetheless wonders why “one artist ought to have the ability to have carte blanche and everybody else could be topic to penalties.”

“Is he above the regulation?” Velocity mentioned. “The proof would counsel that he’s.”

Some specialists imagine Banksy’s potential to make use of the world as his canvas is cash within the financial institution. One analyst, MyArtBroker, noticed that the Royal Courts of Justice mural helped bolster Banksy’s market worth.

Though such public items “can’t be monetised immediately, they keep visibility and authorship – qualities that hold collector confidence excessive and demand lively,” artwork funding web site MyArtBroker wrote in a report on the 2025 marketplace for Banksy’s work. Banksy’s “road interventions,” it mentioned, assist prop up demand and costs for his artwork as a complete. One Banksy piece was offered by Sotheby’s for £4.2 million ($5.7 million) final yr, the report famous.

Banksy lawyer Stephens didn’t reply questions on whether or not Banksy has been penalized for his exploits. However he famous that some homeowners are comfortable when he paints on their buildings. “It seems that if folks discover a Banksy added to their wall, most of them name Sotheby’s slightly than the police,” he wrote. “The query of the place the artist’s work sits within the authorized panorama is an fascinating one, and I’m as bemused as anybody else.”

That is the story of the artwork, commerce and paradox of Banksy, arguably essentially the most well-known nameless man on this planet. The journey to know him started in Ukraine and took us to a billboard in New York’s Meatpacking District, and the partitions and public sale homes of London.

For 1 / 4 of a century, Banksy has created the impression that he could be anyplace, at any time, and go unnoticed. Trying to find clues to his id feels “like a treasure hunt,” mentioned Ulrich Blanche, an artwork historian and Banksy professional. After the Ukraine murals appeared, Banksy posted a video on his Instagram confirming the items had been his. The footage additionally confirmed a painter carrying a grey hoodie in Horenka. It was filmed from behind the person, hiding his face. We went again to the village in hopes that locals had a greater view.

Among the many potential Banksys within the Reuters photograph lineup was Thierry Guetta, a road artist who goes by Mr Brainwash. Guetta was featured in Banksy’s Oscar-nominated 2010 documentary, “Exit By means of the Present Store.” Guetta is French; Banksy has mentioned he’s from Bristol, England. Given Guetta’s nationality and his function within the movie, he appeared a longshot candidate. Nonetheless, the concept Banksy would covertly function himself on display screen would possibly match together with his repute as a prankster who hides in plain sight.

One other candidate, maybe the prime one, was Robin Gunningham. The Bristol native had been “unmasked” as Banksy in 2008 by The Mail on Sunday. The British tabloid mentioned its year-long investigation had “come as shut as anybody presumably can to revealing” Banksy’s id. Nevertheless it hedged a bit. Its cowl featured a photograph of a person “believed to be Banksy.” When the photograph first surfaced years earlier than the 2008 story, the artist’s supervisor denied it depicted Banksy. A 3rd artist within the lineup was additionally from Bristol: Robert Del Naja, frontman of trip-hop band Large Assault. A graffiti pioneer often known as 3D, Del Naja hosted a 2013 exhibition of artwork he produced for Large Assault. It was held on the London gallery of Banksy’s former supervisor, Steve Lazarides. In 2016, a Scottish author had discovered that a number of Banksy road items appeared on the identical areas and across the identical time Large Assault had simply carried out.

Horenka resident Tetiana Reznychenko advised us she made espresso for the 2 males who did the tub mural and noticed the 2 painters with out their masks. As we swiped via the lineup on a cellphone, Reznychenko shook her head no. Then, when proven one of many pictures, her eyes widened, whilst she denied having seen the person within the image.

That man was Robert Del Naja.

The response proved nothing. Nevertheless it made sense given another info we later found. We additionally realized that the 2 males who painted the wall had been escorted there by Giles Duley, the person with one arm and two prosthetic legs. Duley, a documentary photographer, misplaced his limbs in Afghanistan in 2011. His Legacy of Battle Basis donates ambulances to native NGOs in Ukraine. After portray the Ukraine murals, Banksy publicly thanked Duley for lending him an ambulance to journey within the area.

Duley had an fascinating hyperlink to at least one candidate. His images has served as backdrop visuals at concert events of Large Assault, Del Naja’s band.

Not lengthy after the Reznychenko interview, we acquired one other tantalizing lead. A supply had stopped by the Kyiv Hilton throughout Banksy’s time in Ukraine.

“You’ll by no means fucking guess who I met,” the supply mentioned. “Robert Del Naja of Large Assault!”

We later realized from folks acquainted with Ukrainian immigration procedures that Duley and Del Naja had certainly entered Ukraine. They crossed the border with Poland on October 28, 2022 – shortly earlier than the Banksy murals began appearing.

However there was no proof that Gunningham, Guetta or every other rumored Banksy traveled to Ukraine in that interval.

That left a puzzle: In addition to Del Naja, who was the opposite painter Duley took to Horenka? Del Naja didn’t reply to questions despatched through his band’s supervisor. Duley, reached by e mail, mentioned: “I’d go away that to Banksy’s workforce.”

Some critics imagine Banksy’s potential to color at lightning velocity in public and evade detection is “a giant a part of his work, or his most vital work,” mentioned scholar Blanche. “This anonymity is an announcement in itself.”

His mastery of disguise started as a approach of shaking the police, says former supervisor Lazarides. In an interview, Lazarides mentioned anonymity served a sensible function in Bristol, the place authorities enforced “draconian” insurance policies in opposition to graffiti. “Banksy’s anonymity, to start out with, was precisely that: It was to evade regulation authorities,” he mentioned.

Anonymity turned integral to the model. In 2010, when TIME journal named him one of many world’s most influential folks, Banksy appeared in a photograph portrait carrying a bag over his head.

Regardless of such affect and recognition, many of the world’s prime museums don’t show his work. These contacted by Reuters politely declined to elucidate why. One in all them, Britain’s Nationwide Portrait Gallery, owns a photograph portrait of Banksy in a hooded coat and a chimpanzee masks. A gallery spokesperson mentioned the portrait is in its assortment as a result of “the artist himself is a British determine of cultural and social significance.” It isn’t at present on show.

Banksy has advanced as an artist, from portray road items to creating an Oscar-nominated film to making a resort on the West Financial institution and a satirical theme park referred to as Dismaland. He was fast to make use of the Web and different digital instruments to unfold his work. Early on, he registered an internet site the place his workforce posted on-line photographs of his road artwork. Photos that acquired essentially the most clicks had been mass-produced and offered as display screen prints.

How a lot would the revelation of Banksy’s id have an effect on the worth of his work? Reuters contacted greater than a dozen main galleries, museums and public sale homes. Most declined to touch upon Banksy. Views differ amongst those that spoke.

One of many largest Banksy sellers, Acoris Andipa, mentioned his purchasers are enticed by the artwork, “not as a result of he’s masked, not as a result of he’s a Robin Hood-character.”

Gallery proprietor and vendor Robert Casterline sees a possible drop available in the market worth of Banksy’s work. “It relies upon how he spins it,” Casterline mentioned of the best way Banksy responds to being named. “And it depends upon what he creates subsequent and whether or not somebody desires to hold it on their wall.”

Banksy is “not doing something mind-shattering. Half of his work are sprayed stencils.” Even so, Banksy has “created one thing wonderful,” Casterline mentioned. “He formulated a recipe that the media turned enamored with. He created that mystique.”

That mystique has been monetized. In 2024, former supervisor Lazarides auctioned off artwork and private artifacts, together with 15 burner telephones as soon as used “for contacting Banksy.” The telephone assortment fetched $15,875.

Reuters examined what Banksy and folks near him have divulged about his id. A lot pointed to Del Naja and bolstered our concept that Banksy was Del Naja, who immigration sources advised us was in Ukraine when the murals appeared.

In previous media interviews, Banksy talked about his hometown of Bristol in southwest England, recognized for its street-art and music scenes. Bristol is the place Del Naja started to color as the road artist 3D. Some credit score him with bringing stencil graffiti – Banksy’s trademark medium – to Britain.

In a 2014 interview with Very Practically Virtually journal, Del Naja mentioned he grew within the type due to stencils distributed with information by anarchist punk bands. One band particularly hyperlinks Del Naja to Banksy. “I keep in mind getting information from Crass,” Del Naja mentioned.

Crass revealed its personal fanzines. One gave detailed directions for followers to make their very own stencils. A long time later, Banksy provided comparable directions in his personal publications. Crass printed its work below its personal imprint, “Exitstencil Press.” One in all Banksy’s self-published fanzines was equally titled “Existencilism.” A Crass poster is featured in a diorama of Banksy’s boyhood bed room that the artist created for his Lower & Run exhibition in 2023. Like Banksy, Crass has denounced fascism and authoritarianism and advocated pacifism, feminism and environmentalism. The anarchy image ultimately turned frequent in Banksy’s work. Immediately he funds a ship that helps rescue migrants within the Mediterranean Sea. It’s named the Louise Michel, after considered one of France’s most well-known anarchists. His “Devolved Parliament,” exhibiting Britain’s Home of Commons crammed with chimpanzees, exemplifies his talent at sticking it to authority.

On Instagram in June 2018, Banksy posted a collection of rats he stenciled in Paris and referred to as town the “birthplace of contemporary stencil artwork.” He was referring to the Could 1968 protests, when college students papered Paris with posters made with display screen prints, a wide range of stencil artwork.

Banksy isn’t the primary road artist to make use of rats as a motif. Within the Eighties, French artist Xavier Prou, who goes by Blek le Rat, used stencils to color rodents round Paris.

“Each time I feel I’ve painted one thing barely authentic, I discover out that Blek le Rat has completed it, too, solely Blek did it 20 years earlier,” Banksy mentioned in a 2008 interview with Britain’s Each day Mail. That yr, Blek mentioned of Banksy: “Folks say he copies me, however I don’t assume so. I’m the previous man, he’s the brand new child, and if I’m an inspiration to an artist that good, I adore it.”

In an interview with Reuters, Blek expanded on that view. “Does an thought belong to those that use it or those that discover it?” he requested. “I’ve determined to assume that concepts belong to those that use them, thus to everybody.”

Banksy has acknowledged similarities between his work and Blek’s, however he has cited one other painter as a stronger affect. In a 2012 submit, the FAQ part of Banksy’s web site addressed whether or not he copied Blek. Banksy answered: “No. I copied 3D from Large Assault. He can truly draw.”

It was a reference to Del Naja, the artist who painted as 3D, who acknowledged in 2014 that his inspirations included the punk band Crass, and whose early stencil work, although much less refined, resembles later Banksy items.

One other potential clue got here from a longtime Del Naja buddy, music producer Goldie. In a 2017 podcast interview, Goldie referred to Banksy by his first title: “No disrespect to Rob,” Goldie mentioned. “I feel he is a superb artist. I feel he has flipped the world of artwork over.” The remark fueled rumors that “Rob” was a reference to Del Naja.

As frontman for Large Assault, Del Naja has used his fame to focus on political and social injustice, a theme of Banksy’s artwork and philanthropy. Protesting the Iraq Battle in 2003, Del Naja was photographed holding a placard excessive above his head. On it was Banksy’s picture of a smiling grim reaper.

In an interview with CBS tv first aired in 2023, former supervisor Lazarides toyed with viewers eager to resolve the thriller. “I used to be on my laptop and regarded and I went Rob, Robin …,” he mentioned. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. That title’s on the market and who says it’s true. Robin, Robert, Robbie.”

Lazarides continued: “Mr. Del Naja is a graffiti artist, and I’d say arguably approach higher than Banksy.” Then: “Sure. It’s Robert Del Naja. And me, and some different folks,” he teased, breaking into laughter. Then: “Properly possibly I’m being severe and possibly I’m not.”

Hints like that had been a part of the explanation we scoured “Banksy Captured,” Lazarides’ two-volume account of managing the artist from the late Nineteen Nineties to 2008. The books are crammed with behind-the-scenes pictures. The pictures of Banksy obscure his face, however the photos and textual content are sprinkled with clues – together with an anecdote from 25 years in the past, when Banksy was arrested in New York.

CHAPTER 2: CAUGHT IN THE ACT

NEW YORK – In September 2000, gallerist Ivy Brown gave Steve Lazarides and Banksy an earful about her condominium constructing.

On the time, Brown represented Lazarides in his images profession. A billboard had been erected on the roof of 675 Hudson Avenue in Manhattan, an architecturally distinctive brownstone with a triangular footprint much like that of New York’s well-known Flatiron constructing.

In an interview, she advised Reuters she was “having a meltdown.” September Vogue Week was below approach in New York, and the billboard was an commercial for Marc Jacobs clothes. The advert confirmed a younger man’s head alongside the phrases, “Boys Love Marc Jacobs.”

“I felt it defaced the constructing,” Brown mentioned.

She took her visitors to the roof and hoped for assist. “I used to be, like, ‘Have a look at that factor!’ You recognize, it’s like, ’Yo B, love you to do one thing up there.”

Over the following three days, Banksy frolicked at a bar throughout the road. Brown mentioned she usually observed him gazing on the advert. Promoting billboards had lengthy fascinated Banksy. They’re, he as soon as argued, akin to how some critics view graffiti: a public assertion foisted on folks with out permission. “Any advert in a public area that offers you no selection whether or not you see it or not is yours,” he wrote in 2004. “It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use.”

In September 2000, Banksy was shifting from portray freehand to utilizing stencils, a technique suited to repetition and velocity. However when he climbed up on Brown’s roof to have on the billboard, he painted freehand.

The half-finished picture resembled a billboard Banksy noticed in Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws.” In his 2023 “Lower & Run” exhibition in Glasgow, the artist mentioned the film scene impressed him to get into graffiti. In “Jaws,” somebody doctored a tourism billboard depicting a girl on an inflatable raft within the sea. The vandal added a shark fin and gave the girl bulging eyes and a speech bubble: “HELP!!! SHARK.”

In a portray spree, Lazarides wrote, Banksy “doctored the Marc Jacobs Males billboard in order that the mannequin had goofy enamel” and drew a “big speech bubble” that was unusually empty.

That’s as a result of New York police caught Banksy earlier than he might end.

In his ebook, Lazarides talked about the arrest, although not when it occurred or the constructing’s tackle. However by geolocating the constructing within the pictures Lazarides revealed, and by courting the Marc Jacobs billboard to September 2000, when New York Vogue Week was underway, we had been capable of unearth police paperwork and a courtroom file from the incident.

The contents of those information have by no means been reported.

They present that at 4:20 a.m. on September 18, 2000, authorities discovered a person defacing a billboard on the roof of 675 Hudson Avenue. As a result of damages exceeded $1,500, police sought to cost him with a felony. Among the many paperwork is the person’s handwritten confession.

“The night the night time of September seventeenth I had been out ingesting at a nightclub with pals once I determine to make a humorous adjustment to a billboard on prime of the property on Hudson st. Utilizing a key I entered the constructing the place I had been maintaining some paints and utilizing a ladder I painted eyeshadow a brand new mouth and a speach (sic) bubble of the billboard.”

Inside hours of his arrest, paperwork present, the person was assigned a public defender. That afternoon, he was launched after agreeing to quickly flip over his passport.

“He acquired out fairly quick, and he referred to as me,” Brown recalled. “He was like, ‘Ello luvvie!’ I mentioned ‘Yo, B! How did you get out so quick?’ And he mentioned, ‘Feminine decide, nudge-nudge, wink-wink,’” Brown mentioned.

“I spotted that a part of his artwork was getting out of jail.”

The courtroom file exhibits he would later submit $1,500 bail in trade for his passport. The felony costs had been lowered to a misdemeanor cost of disorderly conduct. He paid a advantageous and charges totaling $310, and by early 2001, he accomplished his sentence of 5 days of neighborhood service, the information present. On the bail type, he gave his tackle as 160 E. twenty fifth Avenue in New York, the situation of considered one of Manhattan’s most eccentric lodges. Earlier than his arrest, Banksy had lived for months at a time on the Carlton Arms Resort, which over time has let artists keep free of charge in return for adorning their rooms. Archived pages of the resort web site point out that in 1997, Banksy painted a mural on the resort. In 1999, the location exhibits, he completed a complete room, 5B.

The work regarded nothing just like the Banksys of in the present day. It was painted freehand, in a rainbow of colours. The characters had been cartoonish. The resort web site attributed the works to “Robin Banks” – a play on “robbing banks,” later shortened to Banksy.

Emma Houghton advised Reuters she dated the artist for 4 years within the Nineteen Nineties, “simply earlier than he was transitioning into Banksy.” In an interview, she wouldn’t reveal his true id or how they met. However she recounted that in written correspondence along with her, the title he used for himself advanced: from his beginning title to “Mr. Banks” after which “to Banksy.” In 2024, Houghton auctioned various these hand-painted and signed playing cards, which fetched £56,000.

Robert Clarke, a former Carlton Arms worker, struck up a friendship with Banksy and wrote in a memoir about their time collectively on the resort. They bonded as a result of each had been from Bristol, Clarke wrote.

The ebook included a passage that will later strike us as vital: Banksy, Clarke wrote, advised him he was contemplating legally altering his title to “Robin Banks.” Reuters was unable to find Clarke for remark.

When Banksy was busted in 2000, he wasn’t on the New York Police Division’s radar, mentioned Steve Mona, the now-retired lieutenant who ran the 75-member vandal squad again then. The police had no thought they’d nabbed “Banksy” as a result of the artist had solely just lately begun using the type and pseudonym that will make him well-known.

Given Banksy’s movie star, the title of the perpetrator now takes on significance. It wasn’t Del Naja who defaced the billboard atop 675 Hudson Avenue. The person who confessed was Robin Gunningham.

Along with his signature, Gunningham is repeatedly named in courtroom and police paperwork associated to the arrest.

The Mail on Sunday had been proper in 2008 in making the case that Gunningham was Banksy. In hindsight, Gunningham’s effort to cover his id started falling aside together with his September 2000 arrest in New York. Data of the bust existed they usually contained his actual title. The books by former supervisor Lazarides wouldn’t be revealed till 2019. However the pictures and the small print Lazarides included in regards to the arrest enabled us to pinpoint the place Banksy was apprehended and the advert he defaced.

However how did proving past query that Banksy was Robin Gunningham sq. with what we knew in regards to the murals in Ukraine?

Sources advised us there was no report that Gunningham ever entered Ukraine. So who was Del Naja’s portray associate if Gunningham hadn’t been there?

We recalled a element from Banksy’s Carlton Arms days. As Clarke notes in “Seven Years with Banksy,” the artist had as soon as thought of legally altering his title.

LONDON – Within the years after his New York arrest, Banksy turned a phenomenon. His work gave the impression to be in all places. Nobody appeared to know who he was, and plenty of within the artwork world had been dying to seek out out.

However in 2004, his anonymity act almost collapsed after a run-in with a Jamaican photographer named Peter Dean Rickards.

Rickards was on task for the report label Wall of Sound. Banksy had signed with the label to supply art work for album covers. He and Rickards met up in Kingston to work collectively. It didn’t go properly.

“What we object to,” Rickards wrote on his web site in a now-deleted submit, “are folks like Banksy who go round spewing pseudo-humanitarian bullshit to elucidate their ‘artwork’.” He wrote that Banksy “was just a few wannabe-punk ‘stencilist’ together with his head caught extremely far up his personal redneck ass.”

Rickards didn’t reveal Banksy’s title. However he posted 21 pictures of Banksy at work in Jamaica, 14 of which present his face from numerous angles. In July 2004, one of many pictures was revealed by the Night Customary. The headline: “Unmasked eventually.”

However the Customary didn’t have Banksy’s given title. And there was a minimum of some query whether or not the person within the photograph was Banksy. Supervisor Lazarides issued a agency denial, telling the paper it was “another person.”

Requested about that denial, Lazarides advised Reuters he doesn’t imagine he noticed the photograph earlier than speaking to the Customary.

Rickards died in 2014. It’s not clear what prompted his beef with Banksy, however his pictures are unambiguous. We in contrast them to many extra from Lazarides’ books and to footage from interviews that Banksy, utilizing his pseudonym, gave within the late Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s. The person in Rickards’ pictures was Banksy.

Picture comparisons present that Banksy usually wore a bracelet and watch, all the time on his left arm. His hair was brown and bristly. He had glasses and an earring in his left ear. Rickards and Lazarides additionally captured of their pictures a particular tattoo on Banksy’s left forearm. In July 2008, The Mail on Sunday ran its Banksy investigation. Citing an nameless supply, the paper recognized the person within the Rickards photograph for the primary time as Gunningham, an artist from Bristol who was born in 1973 and attended the Bristol Cathedral College.

Archived copies of the coed journal, The Cathedralian, comprise quite a few mentions of Gunningham. These embody a comic book strip he created round age 11.

Later, Gunningham earned college awards for his art work and was lauded within the Cathedralian for his appearing and athleticism. He “confirmed stage presence” in a faculty play and was recommended for “spectacular saves” as a goalkeeper on the sector hockey workforce.

A nimble artist with a theatrical streak: key traits of Banksy, the persona Gunningham would embrace.

Curiously, after the 2008 Mail on Sunday piece, the path went chilly. We discovered no hint of Gunningham in UK public information. He had seemingly gone off the grid.

However we now had a speculation about why there was no report of Gunningham visiting Ukraine. It was bolstered once we reached former supervisor Lazarides late final yr. He advised us we had been pursuing a ghost.

“There isn’t any Robin Gunningham,” Lazarides mentioned when requested in regards to the artist’s id. “The title you’ve acquired I killed years in the past,” he mentioned of Robin Gunningham. Trying to find him could be “a straight useless finish.”

“Life-wise,” he mentioned, “you’ll by no means discover him.”

Anonymity began as a technique to dodge the cops, Lazarides mentioned. Finally, maintaining the key turned a burden. By the top of their partnership, Lazarides estimates he spent half or extra of his time managing and sustaining the artist’s mystique.

“I feel it turned a very good gag, after which, if you need my trustworthy, trustworthy opinion, I feel it then turned a illness,” he mentioned.

In 2008, Lazarides mentioned, he and Banksy made a “mutual” resolution to half methods. In considered one of his final acts as Banksy’s supervisor, Lazarides mentioned, he organized a authorized title change for his shopper. Robin Gunningham turned another person, below a reputation that would by no means be linked to him.

“I don’t keep in mind whose thought it was, however I do know for a reality it was me that set all of it up,” Lazarides mentioned. He declined to disclose the brand new title Gunningham took. “You make a pact and you retain your phrase,” he mentioned.

Lazarides did observe that there was no hidden that means, no pun, nothing particular in any respect in regards to the new id Robin Gunningham took. “It’s simply one other title,” Lazarides advised us.

That offhand remark was encouraging. It match with one other concept we had regarding the id of the opposite painter with Del Naja in Ukraine.

We had compiled a wealthy public report of all issues Banksy: his previous statements, corporations related to him, and excerpts from books or articles about him at numerous phases of life.

By looking that information and cross-referencing it with different public information, we recognized what we believed to be the title Banksy took. It is among the hottest names in Britain, so frequent it helps him conceal in plain sight.

Though these paperwork are public, Reuters isn’t figuring out the particular ones used, with a view to cut back the possibilities of revealing Banksy’s tackle and sure different personal info. The paperwork embody property information that set up a brand new title adopted by a relative, and information from a company submitting – dealt with by Banksy’s former accountant – through which the one two shareholders listed had been that relative and the brand new title assumed by the artist.

We had already positioned Del Naja in Horenka, and witnesses described two males portray the Banksy mural there. Sources confirmed there was no proof that Gunningham had entered Ukraine. However what a few man by the title we believed Banksy had taken?

That title is David Jones. It’s probably the most well-liked names amongst British males. In 2017, for instance, there have been about 6,000 males named David Jones within the UK, based on information analyzed by GBG, an identity-data intelligence firm. David Jones is also the given title of David Bowie, whose Ziggy Stardust alter ego impressed a Banksy portrait of Queen Elizabeth.

On October 28, 2022, the day Duley and Del Naja entered Ukraine, a “David Jones” additionally crossed the border on the identical location, based on a supply acquainted with immigration procedures. The supply additionally advised us the date of beginning listed on Jones’ passport. It was the identical as Robin Gunningham’s birthday.

In line with the supply, information additionally point out Jones left Ukraine on November 2, 2022, the identical day Del Naja departed.

Banksy, born Robin Gunningham, later took the title David Jones. (Whether or not he nonetheless makes use of that title is unclear.) And Robert Del Naja, Gunningham’s graffiti idol, buddy, and a person himself rumored to be Banksy, has on a minimum of one event been his secret portray associate. Banksy wasn’t the Large Assault frontman, whose 2024 local weather motion live performance drew greater than 30,000 followers to Bristol. However he has turn into a star performer in his personal proper. Working example is the wild 2018 Sotheby’s public sale in London of his iconic “Woman with Balloon.”

The portray had just lately offered for $1.4 million. When it went up for resale that day, the artwork world was shocked to observe the piece get partially shredded by a tool Banksy had secretly constructed into its body. That piece, renamed “Love is within the Bin,” offered three years later for about $25 million.

Artwork vendor Casterline was on the public sale and remembers when the shredder started to beep. He pulled out his telephone to take photos.

“Sadly, there was one individual standing in entrance of me,” blocking the view, he mentioned. It was an eccentric-looking man with a broad neck scarf and thick eyewear. Oddly, the person wasn’t watching the portray get shredded. He was wanting within the different route, observing the group’s response.

Solely later, reviewing what he shot, did Casterline discover that the person’s glasses appeared to have a small digicam constructed into the bridge. (Banksy later posted a video of the stunt, together with pictures of the astonished viewers.) Having seen Rickards’ 2004 photograph of Robin Gunningham, Casterline is “fairly positive” it was the identical man, thinner and older.

Casterline nonetheless has the pictures. He’s maintaining them personal, save for a tiny crop of the person’s glasses he shared with us. He echoed what many say in Banksy’s protecting circle of pals, companions, collectors and critics.

“I don’t need to be the man who exposes Banksy,” he mentioned.

The enigmatic road artist Banksy has constructed a multimillion-dollar enterprise empire as opaque as his id, working via a community of British corporations whereas largely staying outdoors the standard artwork market, based on company filings and interviews with artwork market insiders.

The sale of Banksy items has generated an estimated $248.8 million in secondary market gross sales since 2015, based on information from artwork market analysis agency ArtTactic. The secondary market refers back to the resale of art work after its preliminary sale.

The artist himself receives solely a small fraction from these gross sales, paid below a provision in UK regulation that entitles artists to royalties. However sources say Banksy now conducts personal gross sales for VIP collectors that will generate tens of millions of {dollars} immediately, Reuters realized.

Reuters recognized seven corporations which were immediately related to Banksy over time, and a minimum of two further companies that had been related to the artist by title or through his attorneys and accountants. The centerpiece is the Pest Management Workplace, included in 2008. It serves as each the artist’s authentication physique and enterprise operation. Its mum or dad firm is Picturesonwalls Restricted, which as soon as operated a London gallery.

The monetary progress has been substantial. Pest Management’s first monetary report, revealed in 2009, confirmed whole belongings of £243,019. By 2015, that grew to £2.7 million, together with £1.1 million in money. The most recent report, for 2024, reveals whole web belongings of about £5.7 million – comprising £4.4 million in money and £1.2 million in “shares.” The filings aren’t clear about whether or not these are shares or unsold artworks. They’re revealed on Firms Home, Britain’s company registry.

Picturesonwalls Restricted’s newest report exhibits whole web belongings of £2.5 million, together with £1 million in money, up dramatically from simply £63,013 in its first reporting interval ending June 2005.

Early in his profession, Banksy offered prints via the Footage on Partitions gallery for as little as £60, sustaining tight management over distribution. The gallery closed in 2017, posting a sardonic farewell noting that “catastrophe struck” when its artists turned profitable and prints turned value tens of 1000’s of kilos. Unable to reconcile changing into a part of the artwork promote it “as soon as so self-righteously denounced,” the gallery defined in a submit, it shut down.

Immediately, most Banksys altering palms are offered via personal collectors, galleries, and public sale homes, with out obvious direct involvement or monetary participation by the artist. “It’s very laborious to purchase a Banksy from Banksy,” explains artwork historian Ulrich Blanche.

Until you’re considered one of a choose group invited to one of many artist’s personal gross sales. In February 2024, Banksy held a secret exhibition in a Shoreditch basement, based on a collector who obtained pictures from attendees. The supply shared among the surreptitiously snapped pictures with Reuters. They included pictures of beforehand unseen authentic Banksy works. The occasion, held in a constructing on Hanbury Avenue, was open solely to collectors invited immediately by Pest Management.

Works provided included a print of a kid sitting in a flowering tree that offered for £15,000, and a Madonna with Little one painted on scrap steel with a rusty bullet gap that fetched £500,000. Consumers signed three-year non-resale agreements and nondisclosure agreements, the supply advised Reuters.

As the worth of Banksy items has skyrocketed over the course of 1 / 4 century, the artist’s authentication course of has turn into more and more vital and, to some, controversial. Pest Management serves as the only real authenticator of Banksy items, however critics contend the method is gradual and opaque.

The authentication course of entails submitting items for examination, which can take months and even years. That frustrates searching for to promote items rapidly. However Jasper Tordoff, a Banksy professional at MyArtBroker says the method is “fairly frequent” available in the market, working equally to authentication processes for different road artists akin to Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.

“The entire motive they do that is to guard patrons,” Tordoff says, noting that “so many individuals have been conned into shopping for (faux) Banksys for reliable Banksy cash.”

Some patrons and sellers need higher transparency. Adam Coates acquired a Banksy print often known as “Barcode” in 2004. Coates says {that a} former Banksy director and different specialists have confirmed its authenticity. He first sought authentication from Pest Management in October 2010. However Pest Management has repeatedly refused, thus considerably limiting the print’s resale worth.

Collector John Brandler, who makes a speciality of reselling Banksy’s road items, faces comparable frustrations. Though Banksy posts pictures of his road works on Instagram, Pest Management refuses to authenticate them as a result of the artist says they had been created for these particular areas. High public sale homes gained’t promote them both. Brandler considers the refusal to authenticate as bordering on “market manipulation.”

Tordoff disagrees. He maintains the authentication system protects slightly than manipulates the market, significantly as costs escalate.

Neither Banksy, Pest Management nor Banksy’s lawyer, Mark Stephens – who can be a Pest Management director – would touch upon the artist’s enterprise and funds. Nor would they tackle particular authentication disputes.

Banksy has persistently used his artwork to fund charitable causes. As his fame has grown, so too have the sums he raises. Reuters couldn’t affirm how a lot cash the artist has donated. In his ebook “Banksy: The person behind the wall,” creator Will Ellsworth-Jones notes that “there isn’t a Banksy Basis donating cash publicly,” making it unimaginable to “give a whole image of what he provides away.” Listed here are a few of Banksy’s donations:

2002: Banksy collaborated with Greenpeace to supply art work for the environmental-action charity’s “Save or Delete” marketing campaign to focus on the risks of deforestation: It confirmed characters from Disney’s animated movie ‘The Jungle Ebook,’ tied up and blindfolded in a denuded patch of jungle.

2007: Banksy took his annual “Santa’s Ghetto” pop-up artwork present and 20 road artists to the West Financial institution metropolis of Bethlehem, donating proceeds to native youth tasks.

2008: Banksy launched a collection of 299 signed prints of his mural depicting kids saluting a Tesco grocery store bag. The sale was performed as a lottery. In line with a printed report, Banksy donated the £24,406.61 raised to Sightsavers, a global NGO that gives free eye operations.

2010: Banksy pledged to donate all royalties from 175 prints of his “Select Your Weapon” mural of a hooded man holding a canine painted within the type of fellow road artist Keith Haring to Russian artwork collective Voina. Two members of the collective had been in a St. Petersburg jail on the time for collaborating in an anti-corruption protest.

That yr, Banksy allowed Moorfields Eye Hospital in London to take away and public sale the 2006 “Gangsta Rat” piece he painted on the facet of its constructing. The piece was offered to lift cash for the hospital.

2013: In a month-long residency in New York, Banksy purchased a beat-up oil portray from a thrift retailer for $50 and altered the piece by including a Nazi officer admiring the panorama it depicted. He then covertly returned the doctored work to the charity store and included a observe authenticating it as a Banksy. The charity, Housing Works, offered the piece at public sale for $615,000.

2014: A struggling youth membership in Bristol, the Broad Plain Boys Membership, discovered a Banksy mural on its doorway. “Cellular Lovers” confirmed a pair embracing however distracted by their cell phones. When it turned clear it was a Banksy, the native council tried to assert it. Banksy clarified that he supposed the piece as a present to the membership, which was dealing with closure. The membership offered the piece for over £400,000 and used the cash to remain afloat.

2015: Banksy enlisted dozens of artists to assist create his theme park, “Dismaland.” After the park closed, he donated the set items and constructing supplies used to create the choice theme park to “The Jungle,” a camp for migrant refugees in Calais, northern France.

2017: Banksy opened “The Walled Off Resort” within the West Financial institution metropolis of Bethlehem. Banksy financed the venture independently. The resort has attracted 1000’s of holiday makers and its web site notes that any earnings will go to native tasks.

2019: Banksy created a store referred to as “Gross Home Product” in London. The welcome mats he offered there have been produced by ladies in Greek refugee camps utilizing life vests that washed up on shore. Proceeds had been donated to Love Welcomes, a gaggle supporting refugees within the camps.

2020: On the peak of the primary wave of COVID-19, Banksy unveiled a bit inside Southampton Common Hospital that paid tribute to Britain’s Nationwide Well being Service employees. It confirmed a boy who had discarded his Batman and Spiderman dolls in favor of a superhero nurse doll. Banksy donated it to the NHS. A yr later, the piece fetched £16.8 million at public sale, a Banksy report at the moment. The proceeds had been used to “assist the wellbeing of NHS College Southampton Hospital workers and sufferers,” based on Christie’s.

That summer time, Banksy additionally introduced he had funded, geared up, and adorned a former French naval vessel to function a migrant rescue boat within the Mediterranean Sea. The ship was rechristened the MV Louise Michel, named after a nineteenth century French anarchist. In line with an internet site for the boat, it has rescued a whole bunch of migrants. Conservatively, the vessel prices tens of 1000’s of {dollars} to function every month.

2022: A number of weeks after Banksy created seven items in Ukraine, the artist put a restricted version of fifty prints on sale, priced at £5,000 every. They had been provided through the Legacy of Battle Basis’s web site. The sale raised £250,000 for the NGO.

(Reporting by Simon Gardner in Ukraine and London, James Pearson in London and Blake Morrison in New York. Extra reporting by Anton Zverev, Filipp Lebedev, Chris Kirkham and the late Ryan Evans. Edited by Blake Morrison and Michael Williams)