Banksy Arrested? Or A Hoax?

We’re hearing reports that Banksy has been arrested, is this accurate, is it truly him, or is this a hoax? The Reddit thread appears to be calling hoax. Some of the specifics are rather sketchy…

It appears it’s attainable for any individual to upload a ‘press release’ to PR Log, and so this could be a single huge troll..a successful one particular at that, as the world wide web is buzzing.

From PR Log (which is now down):

The England-primarily based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter that for years has gone by the pseudonymous name of Banksy, was arrested yesterday by police in London. After hours of questioning and a raid of his London art studio, his correct name and identity have finally been revealed.

London Police say Banksy’s genuine name is Paul William Horner, a 39-year old male born in Bristol, England. The BBC has also confirmed this details with his PR agent Jo Brooks and the web site that acts as a handling service on behalf of the artist, Pest Manage.

London Police Chief Wayne Leppard held a press conference to answer inquiries about how Banksy was finally apprehended. “We had a 24-hour Anti-Graffiti Job Force monitoring different groups recognized to have related with Banksy. We received word that around 2am a group of folks left a flat speculated to be a single of Banky’s art studios. This group was followed by agents and as soon as vandalism had occurred, we then arrested the group, 5 males total. These people all had ID on them except for one particular, and that is the one we believed to be Banksy,” Leppard said. “We then raided the studio exactly where this group was last observed leaving from. Inside we found thousands of dollars of counterfeit cash along with future projects of vandalism. We also discovered a passport and ID of a Paul William Horner who matched the description of the man that we are at present holding.” Leppard continued, “Horner is currently becoming held with no bail on charges of vandalism, conspiracy, racketeering and counterfeiting. We are also holding the other 4 folks whose names we are not releasing at this time.”

Soon after today’s arrest it is unclear who else will be sought in connection with Banksy’s arrest. CNN spoke with Kyle Brock who is a project manager for Banksy says he is now worried that charges could be brought against him also. “If they spent this several man-hours and brought this a lot of charges against Banksy, I can not imagine that he’ll be the only a single to go down in all of this,” Brock mentioned. “All the beauty Paul Horner brought to this world, and the London Police can only see it as vandalism. It is such a shame.”

The graffiti artist that goes by the name Space Invader told reporters he does not agree with the arrest or outing of Banksy’s identity. “He’s just undertaking art. That is what he was doing and that is what he’ll continue to do,” Invader said. “For the London Police to setup some 24-hour activity force just to catch Banksy is ridiculous. I hope we hear a lot of noise from the good tax-paying citizens of London about this.”

Banksy’s identity was long speculated to be Robin Gunningham, a man born in Bristol, England in 1973. Identified for his contempt for the government in labeling graffiti as vandalism, Banksy displays his art on public walls and even going as far as to develop physical prop pieces. He does not sell his function directly nevertheless, art auctioneers have been recognized to attempt to sell his street art on place and leave the issue of its removal in the hands of the winning bidder.

London Police are not releasing any images of Horner or any additional data at this time.