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Despite being arguably the world’s most famous living artist, Banksy has miraculously managed to maintain the secret of his real identity. Now that a U.K. greeting card company is suing the elusive godfather of graffiti, that could be about to change. Maybe.
First reported by the Daily Mail, the defamation lawsuit is being brought in the High Court of Justice in London against “The Artist known as ‘Banksy’” and the company which authenticates his artworks, Pest Control Office Limited. According to the report, the case could finally lead to Banksy being unmasked after an interesting name was included in the suit.
The Mail claims that the artist Robin Gunningham has been named in the lawsuit “as the first defendant.” Gunningham has long been the subject of attempts to conclusively prove the true identity of Banksy. He comes from Bristol in southwest England—Banksy’s hometown—and the Mail claimed in 2008 that a photograph taken of a man kneeling alongside spray paint and a stencil in Jamaica four years earlier was both Banksy and Gunningham.