by Agape Charmani

Many rumors have swirled around the real identity of the most famous street artist in the world. Banksy however has chosen to remain anonymous since the beginning of his career and people all around the world are fixating on speculating about who he is.

Using a method known for catching serial killers, a group of scientists for the Journal of Spatial Science claim their research has managed to identify Banksy based on the locations of his artworks. “The model takes as input the locations of these artworks, and calculates the probability of ‘offender’ residence across the study area. Our analysis highlights areas associated with one prominent candidate (e.g., his home), supporting his identification as Banksy. More broadly, these results support previous suggestions that analysis of minor terrorism-related acts (e.g., graffiti) could be used to help locate terrorist bases before more serious incidents occur, and provides a fascinating example of the application of the model to a complex, real-world problem.

The researchers' statistical models

A bit excessive, don’t you think? According to Fusion the results were then cross-referenced with the personal information of Robin Gunningham. The analysis shows that Gunningham is the most like canditate for the real Banksy, as Banksy’s artworks cluster around Gunningham’s former addresses.

Gunningham is no stranger to the art of graffiti, even though little is known about his life. According to his Daily Mail profile, he was born in Bristol in 1973 and grew up in the city. He moved to Hackney in 2000, about the same time that Banksy rose to fame with his first unofficial exhibition, in a tunnel in Shoreditch.

What do you think? Are the clues enough to give us the real Banksy?