BANKSY’S real identity has been wildly speculated – and there are many clues pointing towards Robin Gunningham.
Many people believe he is the graffiti artist after mysterious photographs appeared to show him working on a famous Banksy in 2004.
It comes as Banksy’s real identity could be revealed in just days as the elusive painter faces a High Court battle.
The anonymous artist has found himself the subject of legal action accusing him of defamation.
Many speculate Gunningham’s name will be exposed after finding what is believed to be ‘evidence’.
Both Banksy and Gunningham appear to live in the same locations at the same time artwork pops up.
In 1998 Gunningham was living in Easton, Bristol, and at the same time Banksy painted the famous Mild Mild West sign, which shows a stuffed bear with a Molotov cocktail.
Banksy’s signature artwork was then found in London in 2000, the same year Gunningham lived in a flat in Kingsland Road, Hackney.
However, former flatmate and friend Luke Egan said previously: “I lived with a guy, with Robin Gunningham. But he wasn’t [Banksy] then.
“I lived with him ages ago. I don’t think Banksy was around then anyway.”
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MAJOR CLUE
Theories surrounding Banksy’s identity were sparked in 2008 when a photograph was circulated of a man wearing dark jeans and a navy shirt.
It was taken in Kingston, Jamaica, in 2004 and appeared to show Banksy smiling while he worked on his latest project.
The man, believed to be the famous graffiti artist, was crouched in front of a bag with stencils and spray paint.
Peter Dean Rickards, who captured the moment, confirmed it was of Banksy after leaking the images – however it has never been officially proven.
Some of Joy’s relatives have not been told who her husband is or what he does.”
A source
He was said to have fallen out with the artist.
“Banksy swanned around Jamaica as if he owned the place,” he told the Evening Standard.
“He’s too much of a p***y to protest having his picture taken once he found himself in Kingston, Jamaica—nowhere near the nice, safe media offices . . . that he’s accustomed to.”
A man who claimed to know Banksy did confirm the image showed Mr Gunningham, according to the Mail.
ARTWORK LEFT BEHIND
Another piece of evidence some people say points towards Gunningham is items he left behind in his Bristol home.
He lived there with pal Egan but the property was bought by Camilla Stacey, a curator at Bristol’s Here Gallery, in 2000.
She claimed the artist had lived at the house because he left pieces of artwork behind.
Camilla said: “I bought the house that he used to live in. He had rented out a room but I think there had been problems with the tenants and the landlord had to sort of repossess it or whatever, so he was just selling it.
“When I moved in, the place had been covered in graffiti and stuff like that. I threw things in the bin.”
Who is Robin Gunningham
Robin was born in 1973 in Bristol, also known to be Banksy’s long-supposed stomping ground.
He was a pupil at Bristol Cathedral School.
Robin’s father, Peter Gordon Gunningham, was a retired contracts manager from the Whitehall area of Bristol.
His mother, Pamela Ann Dawkin-Jones, was a company director’s secretary and grew up in the exclusive surroundings of Clifton where he also has an older sister called Sarah.
When Robin was nine, the family moved to a larger home in the same street and it is there he spent his formative years and became interested in graffiti.
Who is Joy Millward?
Joy Millward, the suspected wife of Banksy, has never broken her silence on rampant speculation.
The lobbyist, from the West Midlands, is understood to have met Gunningham in 2003, just before she started working as a researcher for Labour MP Austin Mitchell.
They got hitched in Las Vegas in 2006 and have been married for 17 years.
A source previously claimed the couple lived in an isolated community and had “little to do with even their closest neighbours”.
An insider told the Mail: “Even those they occasionally speak to have no idea who they really are.
“The only people who know his real identity are those in the inner circle, who have been vetted.
“Some of Joy’s relatives have not been told who her husband is or what he does.”
COURT CASE
Banksy’s real identity could be uncovered imminently as the artist battles a defamation case in High Court.
His co-defendant is the artist’s company Pest Control Ltd, which sells his work.
Andrew Gallagher, 56, has taken the case against the famed graffiti artist.
Mr Gallagher is an iconoclastic entrepreneur who organised raves in the 1990s, before moving over to photograph graffiti artwork.
In an interview last year he said: “I didn’t realize it at the time, but most of the photographs I took were by a new kid on the block who went by the name of Banksy.”
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Graffiti pioneer Andrew Gallagher, 56, filed the lawsuit – but his lawyer, Aaron Wood of Brandsmiths, previously said: “I’m not at liberty to say any more about the claim.”
While Banksy successfully applied for an EU trademark in 2014, that ruling was overturned when Mr Gallagher appealed in 2021.
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