British artist Banksy could be defined as the invisible man of contemporary art, but recently the English tabloid  “Mail on Sunday”, after an investigation that lasted about a year, has revealed his identity: Robin Gunningham. This would be the name hidden behind the identity of Banksy, the enigmatic and mysterious graffiti artist who has imposed himself as one of the main names of Street Art at international level. According to the London newspaper, Robin Gunningham is a 34-year-old middle-class Englishman brought up in a private school in Bristol. The tabloid reached this identikit on the basis of material from a one-year-long investigation during which it interviewed dozens of people who were somehow connected to the figure of Banksy. Everything started with a photo, taken in 2004 in Jamaica, where the presumed author can clearly be seen, towards the end of the eighties, when he started colouring the walls of Bristol.
Furthermore, the “Mail on Sunday” has dispelled the legend that attributes to Banksy the name of Robin Banks and believes him to be from the working class, with work experience in a butcher’s,  who parents assured that he was an excellent painter and decorator. But even the hypothesis that he could be the graffiti artist Nick Walker has fallen.
Whoever he is, Banksy is a genius. A genius aware of the fact that his charm is based on mystery. Following up from a photograph taken four years ago, the sleuths of the British newspaper have traced the student of the prestigious Bristol Cathedral School, piecing together, at least in part, his housing history. First the flat shared by Gunningham with artist Luke Egan, who afterwards realized an exhibition with Banksy, then the move to Hackney, a district of London with many works by Banksy, then the home-sharing with Jamie Eastman, who in 2000 was working for a Hombre record  company and various times used the images of the famous artist. So must it be him? It all seems to coincide also with the childhood stories told by Banksy in some interviews. Furthermore, Scott Nurse, an ex classmate of Robin Gunningham, claims that “he was one of the most skillful in art. It would not surprise me if he were Banksy”. But these rumours were soon denied. Robin Gunningham’s father, contacted by the “Mail on Sunday”, said that Banksy is absolutely not Robin and that the photograph that is circulating is not of his son. His mother Pamela denied having a son, never mind one called Robin. But this is clear. Everybody wants to protect the myth, who besides being an art genius, has great communication skills able to attract the curiosity of international media. Although the tabloid claims to have “unmasked” him, it is unlikely that the ineffable Banksy will react to the gossip and finally come out. The last word is up to him, who in a rare interview that he released said: “I am not interested in coming out in the open, there are already enough twats who try to display in public their ugly faces”.
One of Banksy’s mouthpieces refused to make comments, declaring to the BBC: “we are always getting this kind of notification. I will say what I always say, I do not confirm nor I deny these rumours”. (translated by Giorgina Arcuri)