Banksy revealed? Graffiti artist paints first ever 'self-portrait' on London office block



Mysterious guerrilla graffiti artist Banksy has apparently created his first ever self-portrait.

The notoriously secretive artist has gone to extraordinary lengths in the past to hide his identity.

But his latest street mural, which will astonish Banksy fans, may finally have given the game away.

Is this Banksy? A mysterious mural in Shoreditch, East London, that is believed to be a self-portrait and, right, a previous photo thought to be the artist



The simple wall painting on the side of an East London office block shows one of Banksy’s trademark necklace-wearing rats holding a placard showing what is apparently the artist’s own face.

The face is recognisable from previous photos of a man believed to be Banksy.

The artist’s anonymity gained him notoriety and he became one of the art world’s biggest names with his works selling at auction for up to £250,000.

Buyers have included movie couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Jude Law and pop star Christina Aguilera.

Last summer, Banksy was unmasked by a national newspaper as Robin Gunningham, a 34-year-old Bristol-born former public schoolboy who grew up in middle class suburbia.

Banksy has never confirmed or denied that he is, in fact, Mr Gunningham.

Typical: Banksy's trademark rat on the West Bank wall in Bethlehem

But the foot-high painting on the outside wall of an unremarkable office building in London’s trendy Shoreditch, could confirm the elusive artist’s identity at last.



It has been stencilled - a technique Banksy favours to create his works quickly and so minimise the risk of him being caught.

As well as his graffiti art across London and in other British cities, Banksy has regularly sparked controversy with his bizarre stunts.

He was slammed by animal welfare groups for using a live elephant in an exhibition in Los Angeles.



He painted a mural of children digging a hole to a paradise beach on the Palestinian side of the West Bank wall and once placed an inflatable doll dressed as a Guantanamo Bay prisoner on a rollercoaster ride in Disneyland, California.

Banksy marked the seventh anniversary of Princess Diana’s death by printing mock £10 notes decorated with her face and once created a 3.5-tonne bronze of the Old Bailey’s statue of Justice dressed as a prostitute in thigh-high PVC boots and a suspender belt.

Imagination: A Banksy work found near the recent 'self-portrait' mural

Dismissed by critics as a childish prankster and glorified vandal, Banksy soon won a cult following for his anti-war, anti-capitalist and anti-establishment messages.

His paintings appear in the most unlikely places and are witty and subversive: two policemen kissing; a helicopter with a pink bow on top; an insect with air-to-air missiles beneath its wings.

The latest image may be his way of coyly acknowledging his unmasking.

While it is almost certainly his, the possibility that the painting was by someone else cannot be ruled out entirely because Banksy’s agent no longer authenticates his client’s graffiti.

Ever since he began unleashing his distinctive murals on railway bridges and walls of his home town of Bristol in the early 1990s, Banksy has worked hard to protect his identity, setting up false trails to throw reporters hell-bent on exposing him off the scent.

False rumours abounded as to his identity. It was variously said that his name was “Robin Banks’, that he was a former butcher with a gold tooth and love of stout and that his parents believed he was an unusually successful painter and decorator.

Bizarre: Banksy marked Princess Diana's anniversary by printing mock £10 notes

There were even claims that he was not one person but a collective of graffiti artists who have got together to perpetrate a giant hoax.

But last year, an investigation found compelling evidence that he is Robin Gunningham, who grew up in Bristol’s exclusive Clifton area.

Mr Gunningham was born in Bristol on July 28, 1973, to Peter Gordon Gunningham, now 66, a contracts manager, and Pamela Ann Dawkins-Jones, 67, a company director’s secretary.

One neighbour said he believed Mr Gunningham had gone on to become a ‘graffiti artist’ while former schoolmates remembered him as a particularly gifted artist who disappeared after leaving home under something of a cloud.



Mr Gunningham had attended Bristol Cathedral School, a prestigious, £9,240-a-year private school that lists supermodel Sophie Anderton as a former pupil.

Mr Gunningham’s parents denied the reports and the artist refused to comment, saying only that ‘anyone described as good at drawing doesn’t sound like Banksy’.