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In case you missed it, here is the link to the in-depth article by Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/global-art-banksy/
Reuters has done a thorough job investigating one particular person who jumped into the public domain in 2008 when the Mail on Sunday published his name based on a photo taken in Jamaica in January 2004. His name was Robin Gunningham, and, according to Reuters, he has since changed his name to David Jones. Steve Lazarides confirms that he helped Gunningham with a name change in 2008, before he and Banksy parted ways, without revealing Robins’ new name.
Another key finding is that Banksy travelled together with Robert del Naja, the Massive Attack frontman, to Ukraine in November 2022. A trip which resulted in seven now-classical street art pieces around Kyiv. Reuters reporters identified the new name “David Jones” by checking immigration records for the border crossing between Poland and Ukraine around the time of the street-art blitz in Kyiv. (One has to give it to Reuters; they are pros.) We already knew Robin Gunningham was a key player on the team, but now we know for sure, and it is interesting that he changed his name as early as 2008. Hopefully, he has changed it again to avoid the press hunting him down.
Anyway, the real merit of the Reuter investigation lies in the many small stories they tell along the way: the Kyiv adventure, the arrest in New York, the Carlton Arms, the ex-girlfriend, the shredding at Sotheby’s, etc. This is gold for any hardcore Banksy fan.
Anonymity: Banksy’s body of work is outstanding, and its artistic value doesn’t depend on anonymity. He will make it into the history books as the most important artist of the early 21st century. Like no other artist, Banksy has created an enormous narrative in which his anonymity is just one small element. Banksy’s artistic risk-taking in creating this narrative is unprecedented in today’s art world. If Banksy decides to distance himself from the celebrity cult, it’s his decision, and he surely has many reasons to do so. Is he obliged to transparency and scrutiny just for being one of the most influential artists of our time? Let’s leave that question for another forum.
Banksy business: As we explained on this blog before, if we look beyond the street art, Banksy is not very different from any other big artist today. He creates artwork in his studio, which he sells to his collector base, his primary market. That’s how he makes money, and nothing wrong with that. A subversive artist also needs to eat. The secondary market is different: Banksy doesn’t make money on the buying and selling of Banksy studio artwork at auction houses or between collectors and art dealers. Every year, approximately 300 Banksy studio artworks are sold at auctions in London. These sales are made between collectors, and Banksy has no part in them. Banksy does get an ARR (Artist Resale Rights) of 2-4% on these auction sales, depending on the hammer price. He also indirectly benefits from the auctions: when prices rise, Banksy can charge more for new artwork when he sells to his collector base. That’s how it works for most living artists. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Team Banksy is a million-pound business and several of the key players are well off. Why shouldn’t they be? It’s well-earned money from 30 years of hard work. What differentiates Team Banksy from other big-revenue artists is that a lot of money is donated to various charity projects. Credit to Reuters for mentioning the many charities in the article.
One person or a team: Reuters focuses on Banksy as a one-man show with some helpers. Robin / David is definitely a part of it, but how do we know that he is the top dog? Banksy’s peers – for example, Damien Hirst or Jeff Koons – are cultural enterprises with up to 40 people on the payroll. Craftsmen, logistics, marketing, accounting, PR, etc. Given that Banksy is a similar operation, how do we know that Robin / David is one of the top dogs? Most likely, he is, but we don’t know the exact pecking order. And, do we really want to know?
Some of the individuals who have collaborated with Banksy doing street art over the last 30 years are known: Ben Eine, James Ame, Robert del Naja (aka 3D), and John Tsombikos (aka Borf), to name a few. Additionally, we also know some of the people who participated in doing the studio work. The scope of Banksy’s body of work is enormous to say the least – street art, oil on canvas, sculptures, installations, pranks, organising art shows, books, film production, and even a hotel. In today’s art world of one-trick ponies, it’s difficult to imagine Banksy’s creative core as a one-man show; it could also be a committee. The only thing we know for sure is that we don’t know.
The conclusion is that Reuters has only revealed a small part of the story, and there is so much more to it. And, do we really want to know?
There are some minor inaccuracies in the article. Two examples:
1) Reuter writes: “David Jones also is the given name of David Bowie, whose Ziggy Stardust alter ego inspired a Banksy portrait of Queen Elizabeth.”
Queen Elizabeth by Inc Well. Bristol, 2012.
The Queen Elizabeth piece from 2012, which Reuters refers to, with makeup in the style of Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, is not by Banksy – it was done by another artist, Inc Well.
2) The following picture from the Reuters article is from the Turf War exhibition in 2003. Reuters refers to the paintings as “Crude Oils” in the text below the photo: “Another common feature of Banksy’s work is the use of détournement, the practice of altering and transforming an existing piece of art. In his “Crude Oils” series, Banksy added stenciled outlines of contrasting scenes on top of traditional landscapes”.
Two years after Turf War, Banksy held the Crude Oil exhibition in London, where they exhibited versions of masterpieces painted from scratch by the Banksy team. After the Crude Oil exhibition in 2005, the Crude Oil concept applies only to those 2005 paintings and does not extend to doctored charity-shop paintings – the so-called “corrupted oils”.
Fake news:
As a result of the Reuters article, many low-quality media outlets are circulating the following photos (Reuters are not to blame) as recent photos of Banksy:
The person is 100% NOT Robin / David. The guy in the photo is a proud 67-year-old from a Greek-Cypriot family, living in northern London. He happens to be the father of the owner of the building in Finsbury Park, where Banksy painted a pruned tree in March 2024. His photo was taken while he was putting up protection on the recently painted street art.
Banksy unofficial 