Banksy is a British street artist who began painting walls in Bristol in the 1990s, and nobody outside his circle can say for certain who he is, because he has never said. Newspapers, researchers and a news agency have put names forward. He has confirmed none of them, and his lawyer has disputed the latest.
He shows himself only through his work: a stencil on a wall one morning, a photograph on his Instagram page afterward, and a company called Pest Control to confirm that the piece is his.
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The secrecy is less complete than it sounds. Banksy has a lawyer, a company and a certificate that the art market treats as the only proof a work is his. What he has never had, in public, is a name attached to any of it.
The missing name caught up with him at a European office in September 2020. The European Union's trademark office, which registers brands for the whole bloc, cancelled Banksy's registration of one of his best-known images, the Flower Thrower, after a greeting card company challenged it. The decision rested on more than one point, and the artist's anonymity was one of them.
I find that more revealing than any name that has been floated, because an official body put the cost of the secret in writing.
What You'll Discover
Where he learned to spray.
Who certifies his work.
What the shredder left behind.
Why that ruling went against him.
Which names reached print.