Will the real Banksy please stand up? Inside the hunt for UK’s most wanted artist
BANKSY is one of the world's richest and most well-known artists worth an estimated £38million — despite the fact that no one really knows who he is.
Now the graffiti pioneer's ex-agent is releasing never-before-seen pictures of the mystery street painter at work, but he still won't reveal the artist's real identity.
Since bursting onto the underground art scene in the 1990s, Bansky has managed to keep the details of his life a secret.
But in the rare interviews he's given, a few things have been made public — he's originally from Bristol, where his first works appeared, and he moved to London around 2000.
Over the years, many different sleuths have come forward believing they've exposed Bansky.
So just who is he? Here we unmask some of the most likely (and wackiest) candidates.
Hi-viz gaffe
Anonymous workman
You might expect the world's most famous clandestine character to keep a low profile in public.
But in 2004, this picture was taken showing a man in a hi-viz jacket painting a Banksy work on to the abandoned White Horse pub in Liverpool.
The image came to light years later and was considered to be the first photograph of the real Banksy at work.
But the man in the photo's face isn't exactly clear, making it impossible to find out any further information about his identity.
Having a Weston-super-Mare
Council parking attendant
When Banksy opened his satirical "Dismaland" in Weston-super-Mare in 2015, fans believed the man himself was there undercover posing as a parking attendant.
A photographer quickly snapped the mystery bloke walking along the resort's seafront near the exhibition because he resembled a man who had previously been accused of being Banksy (more on him later).
But it later emerged that the likeness was a coincidence, and the suspicious parking attendant was really... A council parking attendant.
Although the venue did hold a masked ball event — which fans think was so Banksy could attend in person without being pictured.
Massive Art-tack
Robert Del Naja
Massive Attack songwriter Robert Del Naja, also known as 3D, was suspected to be Banksy — after it was thought DJ Goldie had accidentally outed him.
Del Naja was a graffiti artist in Bristol before becoming a famous musician.
In what would be a strange double-bluff if he was Banksy, Del Naja was even praised by Banksy for his street art in a 2006 interview.
But in 2017, gold-toothed Goldie was being interviewed on a podcast when he said: "Give me a bubble letter and put it on a t-shirt and write 'Banksy' on it and we're sorted, we can sell it now.
"No disrespect to Rob, I think he's a brilliant artist. I think he has flipped the world of art over."
Listeners believed the "Rob" Goldie referred to was Del Naja, but the singer has denied the claims.
However, an even more intriguing theory also keeps Del Naja in the picture.
Safety in numbers
Collective of artists
Some theorists reckon that Banksy, whose work has popped up all over the world, is actually a group of people instead of just one bloke.
In 2016, Scottish journalist Craig Williams theorised that Banksy could actually be a collective of artists working together under one name.
He also said Robert Del Naja might be the head of such a group, citing his public friendship with Banksy and similarities in Massive Attack tour dates and the places where Banksy works have appeared.
Williams : "A multi disciplined artist in front of one of the seminal groups in recent British history, doubling up as the planet's most revered street artist.
"Now that would be cool."
This idea of fictional artists actually came up again concerning the next suspect on our list.
A real brainteaser
Thierry Guetta aka Mr Brainwash
Banksy's 2010 documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop followed the bizarre rise of French artist Mr Brainwash.
It was so far-fetched that some speculated that the whole thing was a ruse, and that Mr Brainwash was actually a character invented by Banksy.
And, as part of the hoax, it was even reckoned that the seemingly oblivious artist who becomes an overnight success in the film was Banksy himself.
But Mr Brainwash has continued to deny that he is Banksy or that his meteoric rise in the art-world was staged.
Although he did mysteriously tell the LA Times: "In the end, I became [Banksy's] biggest work of art."
Swear it's him
Hooded man in Melbourne
The caped crusader was thought to have been caught in the act a second time in Australia in 2016.
A woman calling herself Mia S uploaded a clip to YouTube showing a graffiti artist spraying a wall in Melbourne.
When she looks at his work, it's signed "Banksy", so she shouts out the famous street scrawler's name.
But he tells her to "f**k off" and runs off into the night.
Banksy's publicist said the artwork was fake and the clip was a publicity stunt — but sceptics think this could be a false denial from Banksy's team.
Underpass oversight
Hooded man in Bristol
And that's not the only time Banksy has supposedly been caught on camera.
Two years ago, grainy video footage resurfaced of a man spraying an underpass in Banksy's native Bristol.
It shows him arrive on a bicycle, spray the wall, and then clear off.
The work — called Lights, Camera, Vandalism — was created for the Sunday Times Magazine in 2010.
It's thought a member of the artist's team filmed the painting as part of the project.
Hunted by scientists
Robin Gunningham
In 2008, the name Robin Gunningham emerged as the identity of a graffiti artist pictured in Jamaica, who was believed to be Banksy.
Details of Gunningham's past, confirmed by people he attended school with and publicly available information, tallied with what was already known about the elusive artist.
At the time, representatives for Banksy refused to confirm or deny that he was Gunningham - a Bristol native who attended the city's fee-paying Cathedral School.
Then in 2016, the plot thickened when researchers from Queen Mary University used "geographic profiling" to try and unmask Banksy.
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The technique paired locations which Gunningham had ties to with the sites of Banksy artworks, proving he was the most likely candidate.
Although no one in the artist's team confirmed the researchers had the right man, suspicions were raised when it emerged that the scientific paper's publication had been delayed by Banksy's lawyers.
The Sun also previously reported that Banksy checked into a hotel in 1994 under the name Robin.
But despite the gallery of evidence, Banksy has never unveiled his true identity – and who the artist really is remains to be seen.