The holding of a new trial could force Robin Gunningham, one of the people identified by the press as the man behind Banksy, to confirm whether he is indeed the most famous graffiti artist in the world.
The identity of street artist Banksy has been the subject of speculation in the UK for years. For now there is few certainties about him: he is a white man, originally from Bristol and born in the 1970s. However, the celebration of a new trial could force Robin Gunninghamone of the people identified by the press as the man behind Banksyto confirm if he is indeed the most famous graffiti artist in the world.
Gunningham has been named as a defendant alongside the company Pest Control Ltd., in charge of managing the sale of Banksy’s works, in a defamation trial promoted by the artist Andrew Gallagher before the London High Court. Gunningham’s eventual appearance before the judge could force him to reveal whether he is the artist, although for the moment the prosecution has refused to give information about the process. “For now the details are confidential and they will continue to be so,” explained Gallagher’s lawyer, Aaron Woodto the ‘Daily Mail’.
Gallagher has already clashed with Banksy’s company in a dispute related to intellectual property rights. The anonymous artist tried to stop Gallagher’s company from using one of his iconic paintings, ‘The Flower Thrower’, on a gift card. The European Office for Intellectual Property Rights (EUIPO) decided in 2020 that Banksy I had no right to claim intellectual property rights due to their anonymity.
Main suspect
Gunningham, a man of 53 years old born in Bristolwas already identified as the man behind Banksy in an investigation by the ‘Mail on Sunday’ in 2008. The authors of that investigation then spoke with some of his former classmates who confirmed the suspicionsas well as neighbors of the family and people who had worked with him.
Eight years after this revelation, in 2016a university investigation Queen Mary of London gave wings to this theory and considered Gunningham as “the only serious suspect” of being Banksy. The researchers then used a technique that consists of plotting the locations of more than a hundred of the artist’s works to create a “geographical profile.” The points of greatest activity coincided with the addresses and areas most frequented by Gunningham and his closest circle, although the representatives of the artist always have rejected this theory.
Banksy is the author of hundreds of works painted all over the world, from London to Detroit, passing through places of conflict such as the Gaza Strip, Syria or Ukraine. In 2010 she directed the documentary ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’a criticism of the use of art for purely economic purposes, but despite the enormous media exposure of his works, it has not yet been possible to officially confirm his true identity.