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Has Goldie fuelled theory Banksy is Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja with slip of the tongue?

Goldie attends the Rag & Bone London flagship store opening on June 9, 2017 in London - Getty Images Europe
Goldie attends the Rag & Bone London flagship store opening on June 9, 2017 in London - Getty Images Europe

For 20 years, he - or she - has gone to extreme lengths to keep their identity hidden as they took the art world by storm.

And academics, scholars, passers-by and critics have speculated constantly over who the Bristolian anti-establishment artist Banksy really is.

However, a slip of the tongue by the drum and bass DJ, Goldie, has now given fuel the theory that Banksy is Robert Del Naja, a member of the band Massive Attack.

Robert Del Naja of the British group Massive Attack performs to a crowd of approximately 10,000 at Queens Square August 25, 2003 in Bristol - Credit: Getty
Robert Del Naja of the British group Massive Attack performs to a crowd of approximately 10,000 at Queens Square August 25, 2003 in Bristol Credit: Getty

During an interview with the podcast Distraction Pieces, which aired on Tuesday, Goldie was discussing how people were trying to cash in on Banksy.

“Give me a bubble letter and put it on a t-shirt and write ‘Banksy’ on it and we’re sorted. We can sell it now," he said.

“No disrespect to Robert, I think he is a brilliant artist. I think he has flipped the world of art over.”

Goldie then paused for a few seconds before the conversation topic was changed.

Banksy
Banksy

However, the apparent slip was soon picked up on social media, with fans claiming it gave weight to the theory that Del Naja is Banksy.

Goldie and Del Naja are friends, and took part in the largest ever British graffiti art battle together in the 1980s. Del Naja went on to form Massive Attack.

Goldie with Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja in Wolverhampton, c 1985
Goldie with Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja in Wolverhampton, c 1985

An investigative journalist claimed last year that Del Naja was Banksy - because artworks kept appearing close to Massive Attack gigs around the world.

Craig Williams claimed Banksy was not a single person but a team of street artists led by Del Naja.

But Del Naja firmly denied the claims, telling a crowd at a gig: “We are all Banksy.”

“He is a mate as well,” he later said of Banksy. “He’s been to some of the gigs. It’s purely a matter of logistics and coincidence, nothing more than that.”

Del Naja is the latest a long line of people to be "unmasked" as the world famous artist.

Banksy child crying with media
Banksy child crying with media

In 2008, a Sunday newspaper claimed Banksy was Robin Gunningham.

Scientists at Queen Mary University of London claimed to have "tagged" Banksy using geographic profiling. This technique is usually reserved for catching serial criminals. They also suggested Gunningham to be the artist.

This stemmed from  a photo taken in Jamaica showing a man, with a spray can at his feet.

Gunningham is "a former public schoolboy brought up in middle-class suburbia" and attended the £9,240-a-year Bristol Cathedral School. He was a gifted artist at school.

 

If it is not Gunningham, who else could be Banksy?

Another name commonly linked to the artist is another Bristolian, Robin Banks  or Banx (from which Banksy is said to have evolved).

A Banksy artwork changed by King Robbo
A Banksy artwork changed by King Robbo

King Robbo was another - the graffiti artist died in 2014.  Speculation arose when Banksy painted over one of Robbo's works on the Camden Canal, contravening the graffiti code of conduct, which  states that only artists ever paint over their own work. A tit-for-tat feud ensued. It's unclear why he would feud with himself.

Paul Horner, originally from Liverpool, is another name in the hat. His identity as Banksy was "revealed" after he was arrested by Metropolitan Police at his studio (this was a hoax).

Mr Brainwash - or comical street artist Thierry Guetta - is another candidate. He appeared in the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, which has led people to believe he was a hoax created by Banksy or that he is Banksy.

Keeping It Spotless
Keeping It Spotless

Banksy could be artist Damien Hirst's alter ego. The pair collaborated for the piece Keeping It Spotless, which features a French maid sweeping under a spot painting.

After years of assumptions that the most famous guerrilla artist alive is a man, he could be a woman.

There are also suggestions that the street artist is a collective of seven artists or could not exist at all.

Child angel holding a skull
Child angel holding a skull

What do we know as fact?

It is claimed Banksy was given the name after the England goalkeeper Gordon Banks while playing for the local team.

Whether this is true or not, we do know is that Banksy was a goalkeeper for the Bristol-based football club Easton Cowboys and Cowgirls. 

Banksy shower
Banksy shower

Now that he has grown up, his parents think he is a painter and decorator.

Banksy has been captured on film and photographed in the past but is always wearing a mask or hood, as he did in his spoof 2010 grafitti film Exit Through the Gift Shop, "the world's first street art disaster movie".

Banksy rose to fame by using stencils to paint grafitti images on public walls, often with a topical political message. His images have become so popular that some property owners have opted to protect his creations rather than wash them off.

Banksy child house drawing eviction
Banksy child house drawing eviction

Does it matter who Banksy is?

Some say no. He is providing a service and joy to art lovers around the world.

Others, such as the former Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, claim he is a menace to society, defacing property with his graffiti. Banksy's work has also been called vandalism.

Either way, maybe the truth has been hidden in plain sight.

Banksy murals
Banksy murals