“Real Banksy” identity confirmed by scientists

Date
7 March 2016

The real identity of street artist Banksy has been confirmed, according to research by scientists using geographic profiling. According to the Queen Mary University team, Banksy is in fact Robin Gunningham, a 42-year-old former public school boy. He was named by The Mail on Sunday as the artist in 2008, but this new research confirms him as “the only serious suspect,” according to the team. The University academics used the same techniques as those more commonly used to track criminals or the spread of disease; a combination of maths, criminology and geographic profiling to analyse the sites of Banksy works in London and Bristol against homes of people suspected of being the artist.

The research is published in the Journal of Spacial Science.

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Emily Gosling

Emily joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in the summer of 2014 after four years at Design Week. She is particularly interested in graphic design, branding and music. After working It's Nice That as both Online Editor and Deputy Editor, Emily left the company in 2016.

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