It became known under what name the mysterious artist Banksy now lives
Reuters journalists have found out the real name of the famous street artist, who hides his identity under the pseudonym Banksy. According to the investigation, the artist's documents now list the very common name in the UK, David Jones.
One of Banksy's works, created in Ukraine in the autumn of 2022
Reuters journalists began investigating Banksy's true identity in 2022, when the artist created several works in Ukraine during the war. Their goal was to understand how he entered the country during this dangerous time. Editors spoke to "dozens" of sources close to Banksy, but no one revealed his real name, although many shared details about his life and career.
During the investigation, journalists found out that there were three men in the village of Horenka, Kyiv Oblast, at that time: two were working on graffiti, and a third was accompanying them. The third was easily identified as the famous war photographer Giles Duley, who lost an arm and both legs in Afghanistan. Banksy publicly thanked him for his help with the Ukrainian project.
Journalists then learned that Robert Del Naja from the group Massive Attack also visited Ukraine on the same day via Poland with Duley. The only unknown was the name of the third person who was with them.
Information about Banksy's real name was obtained through Steve Lazarides' book "Banksy Captured." Lazarides described an episode when Banksy was detained by police in New York while the artist was painting a billboard. Journalists studied photographs and case materials and found that in 2000, the artist detained at this address was named Robin Gunningham.
This matched previous information from the Mail on Sunday newspaper in 2008, which identified Banksy as Robin Gunningham from Bristol. But in 2022, Gunningham certainly did not enter Ukraine. Here Lazarides helped: he reported that Robin Gunningham "does not exist." After 2008, he stopped working with the artist, and one of his services was helping with a name change. The new name had no semantic play or subtext – it was just a common name.
Reuters journalists were able to find out this name from publicly available documents: the artist known as Banksy is now called David Jones. Such a common name helps maintain the conspiracy – in 2017, there were about 6,000 people named David Jones in the UK.
Thus, in October 2022, Robin Gunningham was not in Ukraine, but David Jones was there with Robert Del Naja and Giles Duley.
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Даследаванне дзеля пустога інтарэсу абывацеляў.
Есць шмат нявыяўленых крымінальнікаў, агентаў і г.д.