Banksy Revealed? Is He Really Robin Gunningham?

For years people have wondered about the real man behind the name Banksy. One of the world's most famous names in art, his identity has been a closely guarded secret known to just a handful of friends. His grafitti art has changed how people look at grafitti. His secretiveness only added fire to the flame.

Such is the curiosity around Banksy that when he supposedly threw a pizza box into a garbage bin in LA, the box resurfaced on Ebay, with the seller suggesting that the few anchovies left inside might yeild DNA.

He is the Scarlet Pimpernel of Modern Art. The Robin Hood of the Council Estate Wall.

His stencil-style 'guerrilla' art started popping up in public spaces years ago in London, Brighton and Bristol. It's even appeared on the West Bank of Gaza on the wall seperating Israelis adn Palestinians. His work is interesting, contrversial and of late..quite sought after and expensive. Just ask Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Turns out that he may well be a Bristol boy who made his way through public school and went on to paint public walls. Renowned for his use of stencils instead of the freehand grafitti style, some councils and businesses have started protecting his creations.

But is this real or rubbish? People who know Gunningham are now unable to say what has become of him. His father Peter, who lives in Kingsdown, Bristol, denied that the man in the photograph was his son, and his mother Pamela was surprised by the picture, then denied she even had a son, let alone one called Robin.

Banksy’s publicist would neither confirm nor deny whether the artist was Robin Gunningham.