I almost dropped my cereal bowl.
Here I was innocently flipping through an old Time magazine (give me a break, I was in South America!!) while eating breakfast… out jumps a small phrase: Banksy Identity Has Been Discovered. It was enough to almost make me dropped my cereal bowl and go running for the computer!! However, with emotions of steel, I waited…. does 5 minutes count? 
Seriously – this is huge.
For about 20 years someone, known only as Banksy, has been creating beautiful pieces of art – abit most of them have been on sides of buildings, walls, and anything else he/she could find (the establishment calls them graffiti). As time went on, Banksy created a website and started selling framed drawings and paintings (to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars). All this time, the true identity of Banksy was kept a secret (think of how hard that must be!!).
[@more@]On that date, a British newspaper published a story claiming that Banksy is a 34 year old man named Robin Gunningham. The claim (and one that I’m not sure I believe) is based upon a picture of Gunningham in Jamaica with some cans of spray paint at his feet. In addition, the paper said that:
Around 2000, when Banksy moved to London, Gunningham relocated to a flat in Hackney. A number of Banksy’s most famous works have appeared nearby. At that time Gunningham lived with Jamie Eastman, who worked for the Hombre record label – which has used illustrations by Banksy.
I don’t know… it could be… or it could be that Gunningham knows Banksy…. or it could be one of those strange life deals….I don’t know… but I do know that Banksy’s agent (yes, he has an agent) is on record stating that Gunningham is not his client (granted that could be a marketing deal). Oh, I should not that no one has talked or located Gunningham… [fyi – here's another article about the 'claim']
Personally I hope no one ever finds out Banksy true identity.
I enjoy his sense of humor and his way of pointing out things that most people could never do. To find out who he/she is would be like unmasking Batman…
