BANKSY remains one of the most famous figures in the art world, yet his identity is unknown.
On March 25, 2024, a mystery man fuelled speculation that the artist’s identity had finally been confirmed.
Who is Banksy?
Banksy is a famous British artist who prefers to keep his identity a secret and is often the subject of speculation.
Although a lot of his art is produced in public places, he usually only claims the work as his after it has appeared on his social media.
A lot of his art is done in a particular style which people can easily recognise - this includes creating striking images, which are often combined with slogans.
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His work has been spotted around the south of England, including London, Brighton and Bristol, as well as some prominent international locations.
Although lots of people have tried to guess who he is, his identity has still not been revealed.
Banksy first got noticed for spray-painting trains and walls in his home city of Bristol during the early 1990s.
Street art and graffiti can be considered criminal damage so it's thought the artist stayed anonymous to avoid a run-in with the law.
In the beginning, his pieces were mainly created in Bristol, but in the 2000s his artworks started appearing all over the UK and other parts of the world.
Banksy chose to use stencils to create his pieces, probably because it's a faster way to paint.
He was influenced in his early days by a French graffiti artist called Blek le Rat.
Blek le Rat is considered to be the father of stencil graffiti and people sometimes confuse the work of the two artists.
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Banksy doesn't only do street art - he has produced drawings, paintings and installation pieces.
I saw his face. The only problem is I can't remember what his face looked like."
Haig Gordon
The anonymous artist no longer sells photographs or reproductions of his street graffiti, but his public "installations" are regularly resold, often even by removing the wall they were painted on.
He has also created his own theme park called Dismaland.
What famous art has Bansky created?
Banksy has left his memorable mark all over the world but has been most prolific in the UK.
The guerrilla artist is known to have created more than 120 works spanning three decades.
- In 2002, There is Always Hope - possibly the artist's most famous work - appeared on the South Bank in London.
- Devolved Parliament, Banksy's 13ft wide painting of chimpanzees in the House of Commons, hit the headlines in October 2019 when it sold at auction for £9.9million.
- GCHQ Government Spies Telephone Box was created in April 2014. The piece in Cheltenham shows three men wearing sunglasses and using listening devices to snoop on a phone box.
- In May 2020, Banksy unveiled new artwork Game Changer, which was painted on the wall of a ward at Southampton General Hospital in Hampshire.
- On July 14, 2020, Banksy returned to the London Underground with a work encouraging people to wear face masks. The work, called If You Don't Mask, You Don't Get, features a number of rats in pandemic-inspired poses, wearing face masks - but it was scrubbed off by cleaners.
- In October 2020, a Banksy mural appeared on the side of a building in Rothesay Avenue in Nottingham. The artwork shows a girl hula-hooping with a bicycle tyre. The mural has now been removed and sold to an Essex art gallery, disappointing local people who had hoped it would stay in the city.
- In December 2020, a Covid-inspired Banksy mural of a woman sneezing out her dentures on the side of a semi-detached home popped up on the side of a house in Bristol.
- In March 2020, Banksy confirmed an image showing a prisoner escaping from a former Reading Prison with a typewriter at the bottom of a "rope" made out of sheets of paper knotted together, was one of his works.
- In November 2022, Banksy has made his mark in Ukraine after unveiling a painting of a gymnast on the side of a tower block bombed by Russia.
- In February 2023, a new Banksy piece was confirmed after artwork showing a bruised woman pushing a man into a freezer appeared on the side of a building in Margate, Kent. The image depicted a 1950s housewife in an apron and washing-up gloves. a closer look revealed the woman had a swollen eye and a missing tooth. The artwork also incorporated a freezer - believed to have been placed up against the wall purposely - and a man's legs sticking out as she closes the lid on him.
- In December 2023, a new Banksy artwork was removed from a south London street less than an hour after it was confirmed to be a genuine installation. The artist confirmed the artwork - a traffic stop sign covered with three aircraft said to resemble military drones - was his in a social media post shortly after midday.
- In March 2024, a new Banksy tree mural was sprayed on the side of a home in London. However, two days later images showed two streaks of white paint covering the green artwork.
Has Banksy's identity ever been revealed?
Banksy has never been unmasked and it is believed his refusal to reveal himself started as a way of avoiding prosecution for vandalism.
The elusive artist is believed to have given a glimpse of his identity in a 2003 interview ahead of his Turf War exhibition.
The two-minute report, by ITV News correspondent Haig Gordon, features the artist speaking for 35 seconds.
He is wearing a baseball cap and has a T-shirt pulled over his lower face, but his eyes, eyebrows and forehead are visible.
He tells Gordon, who has since retired: "I'm disguised because you can't really be a graffiti writer and then go public. "The two things don't quite go together."
Speaking about seeing Banksy many years after the interview, Gordon said: "I saw his face. The only problem is I can't remember what his face looked like.
"I don't think I could say a single thing about what he looked like. Isn't that dreadful?"
Who has been suspected to be Banksy?
- Robin Gunningham was an early candidate to be "revealed" as the man behind Banksy in 2008. Years later researchers at Queen Mary University of London used "geographic profiling" to match the locations of Banksy paintings to a pub, playing fields and residential addresses with links to Gunningham. Representatives for the artist have denied the theory.
- Robert Del Naja was touted as the anonymous artist in 2017 when Bristol DJ Goldie appeared to name the Massive Attack member, a personal friend, in an interview. He said: "No disrespect to Rob, I think he is a brilliant artist. I think he has flipped the world of art over."
- Liverpool pub sighting - A photo showing a man wearing a high-vis jacket appearing to start work on a painting of a giant white rat on the White Horse pub in Liverpool in 2004 sparked speculation Banksy had finally been unmasked.
- Bethlehem pictures - William Kasper, from London, believed he had unmasked the graffiti king with pictures captured in 2007. Members of the public later identified the painter as James Ame - aka Ame72 - a UK painter who lives in Israel.
- Bristol video footage - Grainy 47-second clip shows a man in a hoodie and a painter's face mask using stencils and cardboard to spray fresh graffiti in an underpass in Banksy's native Bristol in 2010.
- Dismaland sighting - In 2015, fans were convinced they spotted a man who they thought might look like Banksy outside his Dismaland installation in Weston-Super-Mare. But to their disappointment, it was later revealed to be a parking attendant from the local council.
- A collective of artists - Another theory is that Banksy is not one person but a team of street artists. In 2016, Scottish journalist Craig Williams claimed that Del Naja was a member of the group.
- Neil Buchanan - one outlandish, and short-lived, theory was that Art Attack presenter Neil Buchanan was the secretive artist after claims were made on social media. The theory though was quickly squash by Buchanan in an unequivocal denial saying there was "no truth in the rumour".
Billy Gannon - In 2022, a new theory that Pembroke Dock councillor Billy Gannon was Banksy emerged. However, Mr Gannon denied claims and later resigned from public office as a result.
- George Giorgio - On March 25, 2024, a mystery man next to Banksy's latest artwork in North London fuelled speculation that he was the unidentified artist.
However, The Sun tracked down the man who confirmed his name is actually George Giorgio.
The 67-year-old says he is the dad of the graffitied building's landlord and is installing perspex to protect the art.
He told The Sun: "Instead of just whipping a picture, they should've just said who are you? Would've been so much easier."
How did Banksy get started?
He first burst into prominence in the early 1990s as a graffiti artist in the group DryBreadZ Crew.
Banksy used his works to highlight the corruption and inequality in society with a smattering of humour.
Along with his group, they created works around Bristol.
What is Banksy's net worth?
According to Celebrity Net Worth, the artist's net worth is estimated at around $50million (£39.6million).
12 years after hitting the scene, in 2002, Banksy had his first gallery exhibition in Los Angeles at the 33 1/3 Gallery.
From there, Banksy became a fixture on the art scene, with his pieces going for big prices at auction.
Pop star Christina Aguilera bought one of his works for £25,000.
In October 2019, a Banksy painting showing the British Parliament as monkeys sold at auction for £9.9 million.
How does Bansky make money?
Banksy is believed to make money from selling his art.
From the late 90s, reports claim Banksy had an agent, called Steve Lazarides who helped him sell his pieces.
He and his other group of artists created the website, Pictures On Walls (POW), a website that provided customers with affordable artwork.
The artist has dabbled in the world of film, releasing the "street art disaster movie" Exit Through The Gift Shop.
And in 2015 he opened Dismaland, a large-scale installation in Weston-Super-Mare lampooning Disneyland.
Banksy has also made money by selling his artwork at auction.
In October 2018, his artwork titled Girl With Balloon sold for £1million at Sotheby's in London.
But a secret shredder caused the painting to self-destruct after the sale, with art experts believing it now to be worth double.
In 2013, Forbes said the £14million ($20million) artist did not want his art to be worth anything.