A Reuters investigative team discovered intriguing details about Banksy’s identity after seeing his art pop up in Ukraine.
ADRIAN MA, HOST:
Banksy is one of the world’s most famous working artists, known for his stencil graffiti art, which is often political, and it’s gone for millions of dollars at auction. Adding to this allure is that Banksy has remained anonymous until now, it appears, because a team of reporters at Reuters has published an investigation where they claim to have uncovered Banksy’s true identity. Joining us now to tell us how they did it is Simon Gardner, part of that Reuters team. Thank you so much for being here.
SIMON GARDNER: My pleasure.
MA: OK. Let us cut to the chase. Tell us about Banksy’s real identity. And we should be clear here. This is your exclusive. NPR has not independently confirmed it. So who is Banksy really?
GARDNER: Well, our story is about the artist, his work and his methods, his motivations and his use of pseudonymity. And our findings are wide-ranging, and they include confirming his birth name and the identity he took on to hide in plain sight. So he was born Robin Gunningham. But the identity of Robin Gunningham disappeared nearly two decades ago. And what we found is that he had changed his name to the second most common in the U.K., and that name is David Jones.
MA: So Robin Gunningham legally changed his name to David Jones.
GARDNER: That’s right.
MA: So it seems clear he’s trying to avoid being unmasked. Have you connected with Banksy directly or any of his representatives?
GARDNER: Yes, absolutely. We’ve been in touch with them. Banksy didn’t respond to us himself, unfortunately, but his lawyer said that Banksy didn’t accept many of the details contained within our inquiry as correct. But he gave no details. I really hope Banksy will reach out to us now, actually. I’d love to speak to him.
MA: This investigation, I understand, took years. It started in Ukraine, took you to London and New York. What led you and your team down this path?
GARDNER: In late 2022, Banksy put up a series of murals in Ukraine, and one of them, which depicts an elderly man scrubbing his back in a bathtub, was painted on a bummed-out building in a village just a few miles away from where I had investigated the Bucha massacre a few months earlier. For me, it was a really stark contrast. Bucha was horrific. So seeing a Banksy mural had been painted a few months later, just a few kilometers down the road, a few miles down the road, was really surreal for me. And I was traveling back and forth to Ukraine regularly, and so I had to go and check it out.
MA: What are some of the key clues that led you to your conclusion?
GARDNER: Well, we amassed clues and hard evidence, and we reviewed previously undisclosed court and police records of an arrest in New York nearly 30 years ago, which was for doctoring a billboard in the Meatpacking District. And we were able to include a photo of his signed confession to police at the time in our story. And this was a confession relating to having doctored that billboard. So we were able to find his new identity by scouring public records of all things related to Banksy, and we were also able to confirm that David Jones crossed into and out of Ukraine at the same time as his painting partner in Ukraine.
MA: I’m curious. Finding out the real identity of somebody who’s been sort of a mystery for so many years is a bit like unmasking Santa Claus, you know? Why go through this trouble to unmask somebody who clearly wants to remain anonymous?
GARDNER: Some people certainly feel it should remain a secret, but he’s one of the world’s most famous artists, and he’s a public figure who helped shape political, social discourse. So given his enormous popularity, and he has profound impact on contemporary culture and on the art industry and international political discourse, we concluded the public has a legitimate interest in understanding how cultural figures operate. So we’re talking about issues of power, access and accountability. We feel our story adds to the scholarship about Banksy.
MA: Why is it that anonymity has been so important for Banksy over the years?
GARDNER: It’s enabled him to hide in plain sight and continue to put out his messages, political messages, etc., and commentary freely. But I would argue he can continue to do that. We’ve deliberately withheld a wealth of information to prevent anybody from being able to actually find him. The name David Jones doesn’t narrow it down much. We haven’t said whereabouts in the U.K. he is, quite deliberately to avoid it disrupting his family life. And quite frankly, he could go out later today and go and paint just as he normally does, and no one would be any the wiser. And I really hope he does.
MA: Simon Gardner is a reporter with Reuters, part of the team behind their investigation into Banksy. Thanks so much for joining us, Simon.
GARDNER: My pleasure.
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