Banksy photographed in New York?

Is this Banksy?

The man in a cloth cap and paint-spattered overalls was snapped fixing a “mobile painting” on a lorry, part of a New York exhibition by the Bristol graffiti artist whose work sells for millions but whose identity remains a secret.

It's a mystery which has puzzled fans of his work for years - who is Banksy?

A fan of the mystery spray painter took a photograph of the man people now believe to be the reclusive millionaire as his picture of a mobile garden was being driven in to place in Manhattan.

The 40-year-old has been carrying out a series of paintings in the Big Apple since the beginning of October.

However, on Saturday night, as his latest creation in the back of a delivery truck was being put in place, the vehicle broke down due to a flat battery.

Onlookers say they saw several men acting frantically but one stood out from the group.

Dressed in a blue overalls covered in paint and flat cap the man was seen trying to get the lights in the back of the truck working again to illuminate the painting.

A curious witness was able to take pictures of two men hanging around the beat-up truck as crowds jostled for a view of the mobile garden which was only visible from the back.

“I’m pretty sure one of them was Banksy,” said network engineer Tom McKean, who saw the incident unfold.

The 26-year-old, who is a huge fan of the artist, had been following Banksy’s month long “Better Out Than In” exhibit across the city.

He had been watching the Brit’s website closely on Saturday night for word of when his next piece would go up.

“He’s been posting where he is and I checked just a few minutes before 8:30pm and saw he had posted a picture on St. Mark’s place,” said Tom.

“I was like, I gotta get over there right now.”

Tom got to the site quickly and as he pulled up in his car he saw two men - wearing overalls - loitering on opposite sides of the street.

He looked at the work for half an hour before the lights in the installation suddenly cut out.

“It just turned black all of a sudden, real quick,” added Tom.

“The two men got out and they were talking frantically on cellphones,” he said. “They started playing with a battery source by the front wheel.

“For, like, 20 minutes they were fiddling with the battery trying to get it to work.”

As the dark-haired man in coveralls crossed his path, Tom asked: “Are you Banksy?”

He said the man smiled at him before saying: “No man, I’m a truck driver.”

The men then slammed the back of the truck shut before fleeing in a cab.

Banksy’s real identity has been a closely kept secret ever since his work emerged in 1992.

Initially it was rumoured he was born Robin Banks, a former butcher but more recently people believe he could be Robin Gunningham, who enjoyed a middle-class upbringing in Bristol.

During a rare interview he was described as “a cross of Jimmy Nail and British rapper Mike Skinner”.

Banksy also claimed his parents think he is a painter and decorator.

Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/banksy-pictured-new-york-graffiti-2352010

Interesting post good sir.

OH NO! BANKSY THEY FOUND YOU! QUICK! EXIT THREW THE GIFT SHOP!

How does nobody still know what he looks like?? He is a dude that travels abroad with enormous stencils and nobody has spotted him?

Anyways, presumably he looks older than that and wears glasses.

Why do people want to know who Banksy is, his mystery is what makes him Banksy.

janette mccurdy

Aaaawwww. No one got my Exit Threw the Gift Shop joke........

There have been previous "sightings" and photos of him. Tough to tell which of them is real if any. My guess is its one of them. I think he was a pudgy middle aged guy. But tbh, I don't like knowing who my artists are anyway. It's always a let down.

I mean how can a person you don't know compare to their art? Let alone art that you actually really love, that transcends its physical form, becomes intimate with you and is something you attach meaning to?

Art that you love is like a person you care about, it's that personal and intimate. We define ourselves in many ways with the things we like. The artist who made it, on the otherhand, is a person just like you, but with different opinions and personal ticks. Suddenly you start to wonder how this person who is so *insert adjective* could have made that piece of art, music or film that's meant so much to you. You start to notice differences between the person and the art that then assign themselves to each other.

There's a saying like "never meet your heroes" or something. I tend to think thts true.

Just to clarify, I didn't mean any disrespect to Banksy or his fans (of which I am one) by this, I just saw it on the Interwebs and thought that I'd post it here.
I do agree with the idea that his work is more important than "who he is", but as long as he's anonymous, this stuff will keep showing up and I thought it was cool.

@judasnixon: I got it.

Disrespect to the guy who took the picture. If you're a fan let him do what he does the way he wants to. Publicizing his face is only going to make it harder for him to do his thing. I don't care what Banksy looks like, but what he does is technically considered vandalism, so let the man remain anonymous.

It'd be amazing if that guy was a fake by the REAL Banksy to draw attention.

Those were my thoughts too.