Criminology seeks to identify Banksy, a piercing artist – Clarín.com

Banksy, the British street artist, is an urban legend graffiti mythical, whose true identity unknown and not always firm. But we all admire his art and denunciation of his drawings, which appear suddenly in the morning on the walls of London, Bristol, New York. Appear in the refugee camps in Calais, they charge for visitors to see, or in front of the French embassy in London, with a strong and ironic message.

The mystery of his identity gives strength and value to his work, his humor and sarcasm. Your anonymity is part of that fascination. Only the tabloid Daily Mail, with a reputation for xenophobia and journalistic sensationalism in Britain, had dared to investigate in 2008. And had concluded that Banksy was Robin Gunningham, an artist from Bristol who had moved to London and lived in complete isolation, only known to his intimates.

Robin never said if it was him and but his wife, a British parliamentary lobbyist.

Nobody wanted to recover the alleged identity of Banksy again. Until now. A group of scientists, criminologists and former detectives of London University Queen Mary holding have identified thanks to a model of “ geographic profile ” in seeking to track criminals and terrorists . His identity matches that provided by The Daily Mail. Banksy serious Robin Gunningham, 42, a former student of a private college British middle class has always wanted and wants to preserve his anonymity. Despite requests from lawyers Banksy and his fear of press material that would exhibit the scientists, only a delay was achieved and work out later published in a scientific journal called Journal of Science.

The scientists selected 140 works attributed to Banksy in London and Bristol, where allegedly born. With the geographical position of those cities, they found a number of key points, such as a playground, a pub, a residential address in Bristol and three other directions in Londres.Todos match those locations have in common being frequented by Robin Gunningham. Hypothesize that lives where the density of his work is stronger.

In the study, researchers use the “geographic profiling”. A methodology that uses the location of a series of crimes attributed to a suspect to determine the most likely area of ​​residence. Dr. Kim Rossmo, a pioneer of geographic profiling, is one of those who signed the study.

The art gallery owners and artists were enraged. A work of Banksy can easily reach one million pounds but he does not mind the market. Other researchers reported a serious lack of scientific assumptions. They have crossed their results with information already known and given by the Daily Mail, which was the direction of Robin Gunningham, which actually should belong to Banksy. It is obvious that the result would be the same.

But scientists not believe they have “unmasked Banksy” because it is the same Daily Mail. They have used methods to find a serial murderer, narrow the list of suspects or establish where to focus to meet the seeking. And most importantly, that the security services are interested in their findings and fund their research projects. They used to Banksy with a provocative name in his “paper” scientific “Tagging Banksy” (something like “tagging Banksy”)

Now come other less scientific but hard legal battle.. The Banksy’s lawyers will defend their right to privacy and anonymity.