Enigmatic street artist Banksy was recently revealed to be a man in his early 50s from Bristol, England. His name is Robin Gunningham, according to a Reuters article based on a police record about the artist in which he signed his own name.
The artist half-shredded his best-known work, “Girl with Balloon” during a 2018 auction where the winning bidder paid $1.4 million, as well as spray-painted provocative stenciled images of rats and protesters onto buildings around the world. He has also worked hard to remain anonymous. After sleuthing nearly two decades ago by The Mail on Sunday initially reported he was Gunningham, the artist legally changed his name to David Jones, Reuters reported, noting it’s one of England’s most common names.
The art world’s reaction: Go ahead and be known. Rather than undermine any mystique, the revelation could actually give his market a much-needed boost, art-world insiders say.
Collector Peter Brant never collected Banksy because of the unknown factor, even though he is known for collecting street artists such as Keith Haring—he is currently exhibiting Haring in his namesake foundation’s gallery in New York. For years Brant even suspected the artist was actually Damien Hirst, who he does buy, but he said Banksy’s opaque identity “worked against him.”
“It’s difficult to purchase work by someone who’s working so hard to avoid being known because you’re buying folklore,” Brant said. “It’s important to know who they are and how they grow.”
Banksy’s prices have been on a roller coaster in recent years. His record high price is the $25.4 million resale in 2021 of that partially self-destructed view of a girl reaching for a floating-away balloon at Sotheby’s, renamed “Love is in the Bin.” Fourteen of his top 20 prices were set during 2021 and 2022, thanks in part to an influx of interest from cryptocurrency investors, but since then nothing has sold at auction for over $10 million, according to auction database Artdai.
Artists from Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple , to Marcel Duchamp, who made some works under the pseudonym Rrose Sélavy, have adopted monikers when making art, but the marketplace tends to reward clarity—and the more information it knows about an artist’s personal history, the better collectors feel about purchasing it, said Jean-Paul Engelen, a director at New York’s Acquavella Galleries.
Even so, the art world also enjoys a little playfulness now and again. The fact that Banksy chose to adopt a common name like David Jones is being well received among art cognoscenti because that was David Bowie’s birth name, and the art world savors cultural cross-references like that, Engelen said. “It’s a fun tribute.”
Banksy’s company, Pest Control Office, declined to confirm or deny Reuters’ conclusion, issuing a statement in which the artist “has decided to say nothing.” Multiple messages left with Pest Control by The Wall Street Journal were not returned.
It’s unclear exactly how many works Banksy has produced, though dealers put his output in the thousands. His works, including prints, have traded at auction nearly 9,000 times, according to art database Artnet. Collectors tend to pay a premium for his more political works, like the image he created of a protester throwing a bouquet of flowers instead of a bomb, as well as his reimagined masterpieces, including a “Show Me the Monet” waterlily pond that contains floating garbage and an orange traffic cone.
“Banksy may see himself as a rebel, but he’s become part of the established art market, so the more known about his life, the better,” Engelen said. “It doesn’t diminish his artistic adventures.”
Over the last few years, his prices have slipped steadily amid the overall market downturn. Longtime Banksy dealer Acoris Andipa said that he sold other non-shredded versions of “Girl with Balloon” for as much as $4 million five years ago—but works from the same series were selling for $600,000 a year ago. Demand has since perked up slightly, with the current going rate on the secondary market for a “Girl” hovering around $1 million, he said.
Banksy’s unmasking may affect the logistics behind his art projects as well. His anonymity was a way to sidestep arrest by authorities, since he often spray-painted public buildings and private homes in a way that could be interpreted as vandalism, Andipa said. Last year, he stenciled an image onto a historic building in London’s Royal Courts of Justice depicting a protester lying on the ground and holding up a blood-splattered sign while a wig-wearing judge loomed over him, wielding a gavel like a weapon. The work was later scrubbed off.
His ability to freely make art without being punished as a vandal by authorities could be hampered now that he’s recognizable as Gunningham, or Jones. Collectors, including Brant, will be looking closely at what Banksy is able to create next, which also may alter the artist’s auction prices. “If the next art he makes is good, it’ll make his earlier, anonymous work stronger,” Brant said. “If not, it won’t.”
Write to Kelly Crow at kelly.crow@wsj.com
