July 13, 2008 The Mail on Sunday 2 3

MYSTERY BOY: arrested. Nor is there any record of Robin Gunningham, Banksy being apprehended. But the circled, in 1989 when artist has confessed he had by now he was a pupil at become expert at evading police. Bristol Cathedral In his book Wall And Piece, he said: School, above ‘When I was 18, I spent one night trying to paint LATE AGAIN in big silver bubble letters on the side of a passenger train. British Transport Police showed up and I got ripped to shreds running away through a thorny bush. The rest of my mates made it to the car and disappeared so I spent over an hour hidden under a Hewas great at dumper truck with engine oil leaking all over me. ‘As I lay there listening to the cops on the tracks, I realised I had to cut my painting time in half or give up altogether. I was staring straight up at the stencilled plate on the bottom of a fuel tank when I realised I could just copy that style and make each art.It’snosurprise letter 3ft high. ‘I got home at last and crawled into bed next to my girlfriend. I told her I’d had an epiphany that night and she told me to stop taking that drug ’cos it’s bad for your heart.’

s our investigation con- tinued, our inquiries demonstrated again that he’s Banksy and again that the details of Robin Gun- ningham’s life story Adovetail perfectly with the known facts about Banksy. By 1998 Robin Gunningham was living in Easton, Bristol, with Luke ‘Vandalism’that’s worth millions Egan, who went on to exhibit with ART ATTACKS: Banksy at Santa’s Ghetto, an art store which launched at Christmas 2001 in Banksy’s London’s West End. sandwich However, when we approached him, board-wearing Egan initially denied knowing and monkey sold living with either Banksy or Robin for £228,000 Gunningham, even though he had this year. He exhibited with the former and the has also electoral roll had showed him painted living with the latter. He eventually murals – a said: ‘I lived with a guy, with Robin Mona Lisa Gunningham. But ... ’ with a rocket ‘But you’re saying he wasn’t launcher and Banksy?’ a huge yellow ‘Well, he wasn’t then. I lived with flower in him ages ago. I don’t think Banksy London, and was around then anyway.’ another Mona Egan and Gunningham are believed Lisa in to have left the house when the Glasgow owner wanted to sell it. Camilla Stacey, a curator at Bristol’s Here Gallery who bought the prop- erty in 2000, said that Banksy and he said the man in it was Robin was one of three people in my year I don’t know for sure but I think first to bring spray painting back to Robin Gunningham are one and the Gunningham. who were extremely talented at art. Robin was working as a graffiti artist. Bristol. I grew up seeing spray paint same person. She knew the house had In 1984, Robin, then 11, donned a He did lots of illustrations. I am not at He worked for other people and on the streets way before I ever saw been inhabited by Banksy because black blazer, grey trousers and all surprised if he is Banksy. He was would disappear for months on end. it in a magazine or on a computer. of the artwork left there – and she striped tie to attend the renowned also in the house rugby team and I He was quite nomadic. I would not go ‘3D quit painting and formed the used to get post for him in the name Bristol Cathedral School, which cur- think he played hockey as well.’ as far as to say he went off the rails, band Massive Attack, which may of Robin Gunningham. rently charges fees of £9,240 a year In the rare interviews Banksy has but there was some sort of rift in the have been good for him but was a big ‘I bought the house that he used to and lists supermodel Sophie Ander- given (always anonymously), the family, probably because he didn’t loss for the city. Graffiti was the live in,’ she told us. ‘He had rented ton as a former pupil. artist has acknowledged that it was turn out quite as they hoped. He just thing we all loved at school. We did it out a room but I think there had been It is hard to imagine Banksy, the while at school that he first became disappeared after he left home.’ on the bus on the way home from problems with the tenants and the anti-authoritarian renegade, as a pub- interested in graffiti. In 1983, the school. Everyone was doing it.’ landlord had to sort of repossess it or lic schoolboy wandering around the New York hip-hop group the Rock n 1985, Bristol’s Arnolfini Gallery Robin Gunningham left school at 16 whatever, so he was just selling it. 17th Century former monastery, with Steady Crew toured Europe, appear- hosted an exhibition called Graf- after doing GCSEs and began dab- ‘When I moved in, the place had its upper and lower quadrangles and ing at the Royal Variety Performance fiti Art In Britain, at which artists bling in street art. been covered in graffiti and stuff like its prayers in the ancient cathedral. with a number of graffiti artists. This sprayed paint directly on to the The following year, as part of Oper- that. I threw things in the bin. At that But we then found a school photo- performance was the inspiration for gallery walls and the hip hop band ation Anderson, undercover police point Banksy was just someone graph, taken in 1989, of a bespecta- artists such as Massive Attack’s 3D The Wild Bunch, which later arrested 72 artists across Britain on putting up stuff around Bristol. He cled Robin Gunningham in which he and Nick Walker, now an equally Ibecame Massive Attack, played. criminal damage charges. Those was just another artist who had shows a discernible resemblance to high-profile artist and designer who In an interview in 2006 with pop- arrested included Tom Bingle (aka graffitied around Bristol. It keeps me the man in the Jamaica photograph. did the backdrop for the films Eyes culture magazine Swindle, Banksy Inkie), the graffiti artist acknowledged awake at night sometimes thinking Indeed, fellow pupils remember Wide Shut and Judge Dredd. said: ‘I came from a relatively small to be Banksy’s partner in crime, who about it.’ Robin, who was in Deans House, as But Banksy’s interest in the art is city in southern England. When I was is now head of creative design at the Indeed, who wouldn’t regret throw- being a particularly gifted artist. said to have caused a family rift. about ten years old, a kid called 3D computer games manufacturer Sega. Scott Nurse, an insurance broker Former neighbour Mr Hallett said: was painting the streets hard. I think He was tried but acquitted. who was in Robin’s class, said: ‘He ‘The family was always very nice. he’d been to New York and was the Robin Gunningham was not Turn to Page 4 ➤➤