New York police report identifies Banksy as Robin Gunningham

A police report in New York formally identified the English street artist Banksy as Robin Gunningham. The report gave his age as 51. It said he is from Bristol, England. The identification was presented as a formal revelation in that police document.

Banksy is the name under which an anonymous street artist has worked for years, with murals and stencils appearing in public places. A formal police report naming a person breaks that anonymity in an official file. The file, in this account, was in New York. The person named was Robin Gunningham of Bristol.

Fifty-one is the age stated. Bristol is the English city given as his origin. The report did not reproduce the case number or say what investigation required the identification. It also did not list artworks attributed to him in the summary. The news was the name, the age, and the city.

Street art is work made in public space, often without the property owner's permission, which is one reason a police file might exist. This account did not describe a charge. It described an identification. Gunningham is the legal name the New York report attached to the artistic name Banksy.

Anonymity has been part of how the work was received. A formal identification does not, by itself, catalog the art. The day's cultural report stopped at the police document's contents: a 51-year-old man from Bristol named Robin Gunningham. New York was where the report was filed.

The New York police report names Banksy as Robin Gunningham, 51, from Bristol. That identification was described as formal. No charge was detailed in the summary. The name and the age were the facts the document was reported to contain.