LONDON (AP) — Elusive street artist Banksy may have been unmasked — by mathematics.
Scientists have applied a type of modeling used to track down criminals or map disease outbreaks to identify the graffiti artist, whose real name has never been confirmed.
Geographic profiling is used by police forces to calculate from multiple crime sites where the offender most likely lives. Here, the researchers used the location of 192 Banksy artworks in London and Bristol, western England.
Writing in the Journal of Spatial Science, they say the artworks “are associated with sites linked to one prominent candidate” — Robin Gunningham, previously named in media reports as Banksy.
They say the study is not conclusive but provides “some support for the theory.”
Banksy’s spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
