A New Banksy Mural Has Popped Up In London – But Who Is The Artist?
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1 week ago
A new mural at the Royal Courts of Justice is prompting graffiti fans to once again ponder who the elusive artist is
Following a migrant boat bobbing across the crowd at Glastonbury 2024 and a slew of animal-themed works popping up across the capital (including a gorilla appearing to lift a shutter at the entrance to ZSL London Zoo), Banksy has been relatively quiet of late. The only work he has claimed so far is a silhouetted lighthouse in Marseille emblazoned with the words ‘I want to be what you saw in me’, in May. That is until now, with Banksy yesterday claiming one of his most controversial murals to date.
Following a weekend where ‘at least 890‘ civilians supporting Palestine Action were arrested in the capital, Banksy has claimed a mural sprayed on the side of London’s Royal Courts of Justice, home to England and Wales’ High Court and Court of Appeal, which deals with hundreds of cases every year and is perhaps Britain’s most famous legal building. Banksy’s artwork shows a wigged and enrobed judge beating a protester on the ground with his gavel, with blood spattering his placard. The artist claimed the work yesterday afternoon (8 September), with the work almost immediately covered up by the Courts.
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There has been quick acclaim from fans – and disappointment from detractors. ‘Parliament makes the law, and the judges simply interpret the law,’ Baroness Harriet Harman told the BBC, confused about Banksy’s argument. ‘I don’t think there’s any evidence, in terms of the right to protest, that judges have been clamping down on protests beyond what Parliament intended.’
Banksy is perhaps the most famous graffiti artist in history, but very few people know his real identity. He has been teasing the world – and especially the UK – with his playful, edgy street art for 25 years now, all while remaining anonymous…
Who Is Banksy?
‘Bansky is white, 28, scruffy casual – jeans, T-shirt, a silver tooth, silver chain and silver earring. He looks like a cross between Jimmy Nail and Mike Skinner of the Streets,’ Simon Hattenstone wrote in The Guardian in 2003, when Banksy was rising to prominence and about to unveil his warehouse exhibition, Turf War. While anonymity was first used to avoid the legal repercussions of graffiti (it is of course illegal), today it is paradoxically a crucial element of his identity.
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Nonetheless, identity speculation goes hand-in-hand with Banksy’s work. He is known to be from Bristol, where his early work first appeared on trains and walls with rats and policemen commenting on authoritarianism. Many people claim to know him: those who spray painted walls alongside him in the early years in Bristol’s underground graffiti scene, those close to him, those who swear they caught a glimpse the night before a new piece is unveiled.
In 2024, it seemed the artist’s identity might finally be revealed, in a less glamorous and autonomous manner than we might have hoped for: in the High Court. Graffiti artist Andrew Gallagher has filed a defamation lawsuit against Pest Control Ltd, the company that sells Banksy’s art, and a 53-year-old man named Robin Gunningham. The case in brief is thus: Gallagher – who is not Banksy but sells greeting card prints of the graffiti artist’s work via his company Full Colour Black – wants Banksy to give up his trademark of the word ‘Banksy’ for non use. Banksy, despite previously declaring ‘copyright is for losers’, refuses.
A similar dispute in 2022 saw the artist urge ‘all shoplifters’ to ‘go to GUESS on Regent Street. They’ve helped themselves to my artwork without asking, how can it be wrong for you to do the same to their clothes?’
The dispute with Gallagher – which is still ongoing – dates back to 2019 when Full Colour Black applied for a cancellation of the trademark protecting Banksy’s ‘Laugh Now’ work, arguing a work of graffiti sprayed in a public place is fair game – and the European Union Intellectual Property Office agreed. In November 2022, however, Banksy’s company Pest Control Ltd won an appeal, with the Court’s ruling overturned.
In tandem Banksy was stripped of the trademarks for two of his most iconic works in 2021 – Radar Rat and Girl with Umbrella – with an EU panel ruling the artist had filed for trademark in bad faith since he had no intention to commercialise the images. Full Colour Black continues to sell greeting cards splashed with Banksy’s work today.
Amid the drama, Banksy managed to keep his real identity concealed… Here’s who he might be.
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Robin Gunningham
Sleuths have pointed at Bristol-born Robin Gunningham for around 15 years now, following an investigation published by the Daily Mail. The Mail cited interviews with Gunningham’s friends and acquaintances who confirmed he was the artist, as well as photographs showing the physical resemblance between Gunningham and the few known photographs of Banksy. Sources place Gunningham somewhere between the ages of 52 and 54 in 2025, which would make him slightly older than the Banksy Hattenstone met in 2003 (who was 28 years old then, so would be 5o years old now).
Robert del Naja
One third of trip hop trio Massive Attack, theories also surround Robert Del Naja due to similarities between his graffiti artwork and Banksy’s, and their shared Bristol background. There have been overlaps in the locations of both, with Banksy artwork appearing in the same city where Massive Attack were playing.
Plus, in 2018, DJ Goldie referred to Banksy as ‘Robert’ in a podcast interview – though Goldie later denied any significance. Del Naja has denied he is Banksy but has confirmed he is friends with the graffiti artist, revealing Banksy has attended some of his gigs.
Other theories suggest Banksy is Adrian Thaws or Grant Marshall, the other two members of Massive Attack.
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Neil Buchanan
In 2020, social media rumours circulated claiming Neil Buchanan of Art Attack fame is Banksy due to similarities in their work, and theories about their ages and locations. Both, however, quickly came out to deny the claim, and the theory is considered debunked.
Damien Hirst
One of the earliest theories about Banksy’s identity pointed to popular artist Damien Hirst, though both artists have, of course, denied this. That said, in 2007, the pair collaborated on a piece called ‘Keep It Spotless’, in which a Banksy maid lifts the edge of one of Hirst’s paintings to sweep under it.
