The mysterious Banksy may have finally been unmasked, thanks to a thing called geographic profiling.
Scientists at Queen Mary University of London claim to have ‘tagged’ the street artist, using a technique normally used to catch serial criminals.
Basically, they took a large number of locations (where Banksy’s art appears the most) and looked at the groupings to find ‘hot spots’ that could help trace where he lives, The Independent reports.
And they think he’s really a guy named Robin Gunningham, a 42-year-old former pupil at the prestigious Bristol Cathedral School, and the same man who was reportedly exposed as the elusive artist back in 2008.
The theory looks pretty solid according to scientists, as it matches up with the previous claim published eight years ago in a newspaper investigation.
Unsurprisingly, the graffiti artist wasn’t too keen on being the subject of ‘geoprofiling’, and research was delayed after his lawyers contacted the university, concerned about how the study would be promoted.
And considering it’s all over the internet, we don’t think his lawyers are too happy.
Biologist Steve Le Comber, a co-author of the report, told the BBC:
I’d be surprised if it’s not (Gunningham), even without our analysis.
What I thought I would do is pull out the 10 most likely suspects, evaluate all of them and not name any. But it rapidly became apparent that there is only one serious suspect, and everyone knows who it is.
If you Google Banksy and Gunningham you get something like 43,500 hits.
If this is true, it’s a big deal. And I bet Banksy is less than thrilled.
