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I find the Banksy identity situation pretty interesting. His identity has been basically known since 2008, but despite that revelation, few articles on Banksy a
by bjterry 7y ago
I find the Banksy identity situation pretty interesting. His identity has been basically known since 2008, but despite that revelation, few articles on Banksy actually acknowledge this fact and state it in clear terms.
In 2008 DailyMail did a report that provided highly convincing evidence that Banksy is Robin Gunningham [1]. Since then several other pieces of evidence have come out pointing to Robin Gunningham [2][3]. But for some reason in the press they like to latch onto much weaker evidence for other candidates, like Robert Del Naja, to try to "teach the controversy" as it were. Journalists apparently have difficulty comparing multiple layers of evidence coming from different angles with unsubstantiated statements, which I think is kind of sad. I'm pretty sure that it's really that journalists like to just keep the dream alive, even though they know it's kind of silly. I guess it turns out if people are sympathetic to you keeping your identity secret, all you have to do is deny it no matter what and they will just always report your identity as being in dispute.
On the other hand, Wikipedia's treatment of the subject is good, which is something [4].
1: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1034538/Graffiti-artist-Banksy-unmasked---public-schoolboy-middle-class-suburbia.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1034538/Graffiti-...
2: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/early-banksy-auction-1329194 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/early-banksy-auction-13291...
3: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/banksy-geographic-profiling-proves-artist-really-is-robin-gunningham-according-to-scientists-a6909896.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/banksy-geographic-...
4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy#Personal_life_and_disputed_identity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy#Personal_life_and_dispu...