July 13, 2008 The Mail on Sunday 2 3

he said the man in it was RobinGunningham.

In 1984, Robin, then 11, donned ablack blazer, grey trousers andstriped tie to attend the renownedBristol Cathedral School, which cur-rently charges fees of £9,240 a yearand lists supermodel Sophie Ander-ton as a former pupil.

It is hard to imagine Banksy, theanti-authoritarian renegade, as a pub-lic schoolboy wandering around the17th Century former monastery, withits upper and lower quadrangles andits prayers in the ancient cathedral.But we then found a school photo-graph, taken in 1989, of a bespecta-cled Robin Gunningham in which heshows a discernible resemblance tothe man in the Jamaica photograph.

Indeed, fellow pupils rememberRobin, who was in Deans House, asbeing a particularly gifted artist.Scott Nurse, an insurance brokerwho was in Robin’s class, said: ‘He

was one of three people in my yearwho were extremely talented at art.He did lots of illustrations. I am not atall surprised if he is Banksy. He wasalso in the house rugby team and Ithink he played hockey as well.’

In the rare interviews Banksy hasgiven (always anonymously), theartist has acknowledged that it waswhile at school that he first becameinterested in graffiti. In 1983, theNew York hip-hop group the RockSteady Crew toured Europe, appear-ing at the Royal Variety Performancewith a number of graffiti artists. Thisperformance was the inspiration forartists such as Massive Attack’s 3Dand Nick Walker, now an equallyhigh-profile artist and designer whodid the backdrop for the films EyesWide Shut and Judge Dredd.

But Banksy’s interest in the art issaid to have caused a family rift. Former neighbour Mr Hallett said:‘The family was always very nice.

I don’t know for sure but I thinkRobin was working as a graffiti artist.He worked for other people andwould disappear for months on end.He was quite nomadic. I would not goas far as to say he went off the rails,but there was some sort of rift in thefamily, probably because he didn’tturn out quite as they hoped. He justdisappeared after he left home.’

In 1985, Bristol’s Arnolfini Galleryhosted an exhibition called Graf-fiti Art In Britain, at which artistssprayed paint directly on to thegallery walls and the hip hop bandThe Wild Bunch, which later

became Massive Attack, played.In an interview in 2006 with pop-

culture magazine Swindle, Banksysaid: ‘I came from a relatively smallcity in southern England. When I wasabout ten years old, a kid called 3Dwas painting the streets hard. I thinkhe’d been to New York and was the

first to bring spray painting back toBristol. I grew up seeing spray painton the streets way before I ever sawit in a magazine or on a computer.

‘3D quit painting and formed theband Massive Attack, which mayhave been good for him but was a bigloss for the city. Graffiti was thething we all loved at school. We did iton the bus on the way home fromschool. Everyone was doing it.’

Robin Gunningham left school at 16after doing GCSEs and began dab-bling in street art.

The following year, as part of Oper-ation Anderson, undercover policearrested 72 artists across Britain oncriminal damage charges. Thosearrested included Tom Bingle (akaInkie), the graffiti artist acknowledgedto be Banksy’s partner in crime, whois now head of creative design at thecomputer games manufacturer Sega.He was tried but acquitted.

Robin Gunningham was not

arrested. Nor is there any record ofBanksy being apprehended. But theartist has confessed he had by nowbecome expert at evading police.

In his book Wall And Piece, he said:‘When I was 18, I spent one night trying to paint LATE AGAIN in bigsilver bubble letters on the side of apassenger train. British TransportPolice showed up and I got ripped to shreds running away through a thorny bush. The rest of my matesmade it to the car and disappeared soI spent over an hour hidden under adumper truck with engine oil leakingall over me.

‘As I lay there listening to the copson the tracks, I realised I had to cutmy painting time in half or give upaltogether. I was staring straight upat the stencilled plate on the bottomof a fuel tank when I realised I couldjust copy that style and make eachletter 3ft high.

‘I got home at last and crawled intobed next to my girlfriend. I told herI’d had an epiphany that night andshe told me to stop taking that drug’cos it’s bad for your heart.’

As our investigation con-tinued, our inquiriesdemonstrated againand again that thedetails of Robin Gun-ningham’s life story

dovetail perfectly with the knownfacts about Banksy.

By 1998 Robin Gunningham wasliving in Easton, Bristol, with LukeEgan, who went on to exhibit withBanksy at Santa’s Ghetto, an art storewhich launched at Christmas 2001 inLondon’s West End.

However, when we approached him,Egan initially denied knowing and living with either Banksy or RobinGunningham, even though he hadexhibited with the former and theelectoral roll had showed him living with the latter. He eventuallysaid: ‘I lived with a guy, with RobinGunningham. But ... ’

‘But you’re saying he wasn’tBanksy?’

‘Well, he wasn’t then. I lived withhim ages ago. I don’t think Banksywas around then anyway.’

Egan and Gunningham are believedto have left the house when theowner wanted to sell it.

Camilla Stacey, a curator at Bristol’sHere Gallery who bought the prop-erty in 2000, said that Banksy andRobin Gunningham are one and thesame person. She knew the house hadbeen inhabited by Banksy because of the artwork left there – and sheused to get post for him in the nameof Robin Gunningham.

‘I bought the house that he used tolive in,’ she told us. ‘He had rentedout a room but I think there had beenproblems with the tenants and thelandlord had to sort of repossess it orwhatever, so he was just selling it.

‘When I moved in, the place hadbeen covered in graffiti and stuff likethat. I threw things in the bin. At thatpoint Banksy was just someoneputting up stuff around Bristol. Hewas just another artist who had graffitied around Bristol. It keeps meawake at night sometimes thinkingabout it.’

Indeed, who wouldn’t regret throw-

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MYSTERY BOY:Robin Gunningham,circled, in 1989 whenhe was a pupil atBristol CathedralSchool, above

ART ATTACKS: ‘Vandalism’that’s worth millions

Hewas great atart.It’snosurprise that he’s Banksy

Banksy’ssandwichboard-wearingmonkey soldfor £228,000this year. Hehas alsopaintedmurals – aMona Lisawith a rocketlauncher anda huge yellowflower inLondon, andanother MonaLisa inGlasgow