Academic study claims to have unmasked Banksy – sort of

Banksy is one of contemporary Britain’s most successful artists – and its most mysterious. He is primarily a graffiti artist, and his distinctively stenciled artworks have appeared on streets, walls, and bridges around the world.

And one of his works has sold at auction for about $145,000.

But his identity remains a closely guarded secret.

Now, an academic study claims to have unmasked him. Sort of. Maybe.

The study used geographic profiling of the kind used in criminal cases or in tracking the source of an outbreak of disease. Whether Banksy would appreciate his graffiti art being likened to crime or illness is unknown – though he tends to be contrarian in his publicly released statements, so perhaps he would.

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The geographic profiling used in the study assumes that an offender, a spreader of disease – or in this case, an artist – would have an “anchor point,” say, a home or an office, and that the crimes, illnesses or works of art would be clustered around that point.

In 2008, the Daily Mail tabloid newspaper identified Banksy as a fellow named Robin Gunningham.

In June 2016 elusive UK street artist Banksy painted this mural for students at a primary school in his hometown of Bristol, England. Students had named a house at their school for the artist, who surprised them with the mural when they returned from a holiday break. Here's a look at some other notable Banksy works.

On January 25, a new mural by street artist Banksy appeared on the French Embassy in London, criticising the French authorities' reported use of teargas in a refugee camp in Calais, France. A riff on the iconic Les Misérables poster, it shows a young girl enveloped by CS gas, crying.

A mural of a weeping woman, painted by the British street artist Banksy, is seen in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Wednesday, April 1. The mural was painted on a door of a house destroyed last summer during the fighting between Israel and Hamas. The owner of the house said he was tricked into selling the door for the equivalent of $175, not realizing the painting was by the famously anonymous artist.

A Palestinian child stands next to a Banksy mural of a kitten on the remains of a destroyed house in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, in February 2015.

A child in Beit Hanoun walks past a mural February 2015 that depicts children using an Israeli watchtower as a swing ride.

A Banksy mural depicting pigeons holding anti-immigration signs was destroyed by the local council in Clacton-on-Sea, England, in October 2014 after the council received complaints that the artwork was offensive.

A Banksy work appears at a youth center in Bristol, England, in April 2014. Called "Mobile Lovers," it features a couple embracing while checking their cell phones. Members of the youth center took down the piece from a wall on a Bristol street and replaced it with a note saying the work was being held at the club "to prevent vandalism or damage being done." The discovery came shortly after another image believed to be by Banksy surfaced in Cheltenham, England.

A boy walks past graffiti street art believed to be by Banksy in April 2014. The image depicts men in trench coats and dark glasses holding old-fashioned listening equipment -- apparently a commentary on government surveillance. The artwork appeared on the side of a house in Cheltenham near the Government Communications Headquarters, the UK equivalent of the National Security Agency.

A set of balloons that reads "BANKSY!" is seen off the Long Island Expressway in Queens, New York, in October 2013. Banksy artwork appeared all over New York that month.

Banksy also offered up a T-shirt design on his website for fans to download and print on their own.

A leopard placed on the wall of New York's Yankee Stadium was revealed in October 2013.

"The Banality of the Banality of Evil" actually started out as a thrift store painting in New York City. Once altered by Banksy, who inserted an image of a Nazi officer sitting on a bench, it was re-donated to the store in October 2013, according to the artist's site.

Banksy's art exhibit "Grim Reaper Bumper Car" sits on New York's Lower East Side in October 2013. The famously anonymous artist, whose paintings regularly go for six figures at auction houses around the world, said he was on a "residency on the streets of New York."

A Banksy piece covers the main entrance to Larry Flynt's Hustler Club in New York's Hell's Kitchen in October 2013.

Banksy's replica of the Great Sphinx of Giza was made in Queens out of smashed cinder blocks.

Banksy's "Ghetto 4 Life" appeared in the Bronx in October 2013. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested that Banksy was breaking the law with his guerrilla art exhibits, but the New York Police Department denied it was actively searching for him.

Banksy art is seen on the Upper West Side of New York in October 2013.

Banksy work in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, was vandalized in broad daylight in October 2013.

One of Banksy's pieces is this fiberglass sculpture of Ronald McDonald having his shoes shined in front of a Bronx McDonald's.

Graffiti depicting the Twin Towers popped up in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York in October 2013.

Banksy's "Sirens of the Lambs" art installation tours the streets of Manhattan in October 2013. It was a fake slaughterhouse delivery truck full of stuffed animals.

Banksy's "Concrete Confessional" is seen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

A Banksy mural is seen on a wall in Queens. The quote is from the movie "Gladiator." It says, "What we do in life echoes in eternity."

A woman poses with Banksy's painting of a heart-shaped balloon covered in bandages. The piece, in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, was defaced with red spray paint shortly after it was completed.

A Banksy mural of a dog urinating on a fire hydrant draws attention

This installation, seen in October 2013, on the Lower East Side of New York, depicts stampeding horses in night-vision goggles. Thought to be a commentary on the Iraq War, it also included an audio soundtrack.

Gallery assistants adjust Banksy's "Love Is in the Air" ahead of an auction in London in June 2013. The piece was sold for $248,776.

"The Crayola Shooter" is found in Los Angeles in 2011. It shows a child wielding a machine gun and using crayons for bullets.

People walk past a Banksy painting of a dog urinating on a wall in Beverly Hills, California, in 2011.

Banksy murals popped up around New Orleans a day before the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in 2008.

A silhouette of a child holding a refrigerator-shaped kite is seen on a wall in New Orleans in 2008.

Graffiti on the side of a building in New Orleans shows an elderly person in a rocking chair under the banner, "No Loitering," in 2008.

A scene titled "Chicken Nuggets," from Banksy's "The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill," is seen in New York in 2008.

A man walks past a Banksy piece in London in 2006.

A stenciled image of two policemen kissing is seen in London in 2005.

Banksy, the elusive street artist

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The recent study, led by scientists at Queen Mary University of London, located 140 Banksy works in London and Bristol and deduced that those sites are “linked to one prominent candidate, Robin Gunningham.”

Furthermore, the study notes “a number of striking coincidences between Banksy and Robin Gunningham” – to wit, they both spent their early years in Bristol, in southwest England, and they both seem to have moved to London around about the year 2000.

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In the end, the study, published in the Journal of Spatial Science, acknowledges that falls a bit short of proof.

The study concedes, “It is difficult to make conclusive statements about Banksy’s identity … ,” other than to note that clusters of Banksy’s works do appear to be concentrated around places where Gunningham once lived.

However, the analysis “does provide some support for the theory that he is Banksy.”

One of the authors of the study, Steven Le Comber, of Queen Mary University of London, declined requests for an interview.

So who, perhaps, was having the last laugh?

It’s hard to say. But the voicemail for someone who acts as Banksy’s spokesperson was full to overflowing to the point where no more messages were accepted.