The identity of Banksy is one of the great modern mysteries. It's highly impressive that the elusive street artist has managed to stay hidden for so long, despite rumours it is in fact Robert Gunningham.
To answer the question, scientists at Queen Mary University of London believe they have 'tagged' Banksy and can now officially (but not really) claim the world-famous artist is in fact Gunningham.
They identified the pattern between locations where his graffiti appears and addresses associated with Gunningham and were able to create a 'statistical geoprofile'.
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The study, named 'Tagging Banksy', was initially delayed due to the artist's lawyers getting involved but now the study has been published, all the information is out in the open.
During the study, the academics did compare Banksy's artwork to criminal vandalism, even though many of them sell for up to £500,000.
Banksy's Dismaland
Biologist Steve Le Comber, co-author of the report, told the BBC, "I'd be surprised if it's not (Gunningham), even without our analysis, but it's interesting that the analysis offers additional support for it. What I thought I would do is pull out the 10 most likely suspects, evaluate all of them and not name any. But it rapidly became apparent that there is only one serious suspect, and everyone knows who it is. If you Google Banksy and Gunningham you get something like 43,500 hits."
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The technique used by the researchers is similar to one used to race breeding sites for malaria outbreaks and apparently they're very accurate.
Despite Banksy's legal intervention, the research was not altered and was published in the Journal of Spatial Science.
So there you have it. According to some science and some maths and some criminology, Banksy is Bristol-born public schoolboy Robert Gunningham.
Images credited to Getty
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