With its pink neon fittings, prominent position on the Las Vegas strip and $100 flat rate fee, the ‘world famous’ Chapel of the Bells has been a wedding venue of choice for the romantic or impetuous for over 60 years.
The chapel features in movies like Indecent Proposal and National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation while among those to have married here are Hollywood stars Leslie Nielsen, Mickey Rooney and Beverly D’Angelo.
But one household name who also tied the knot at the Bells isn’t immortalised in Vegas mythology and won’t come up on Google for their association with it… Banksy.
The multimillionaire British graffiti artist, who has long made his supposed anonymity a cornerstone of his lucrative brand, has recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of his Vegas wedding, we can reveal.
The question of the identity of the world’s most famous street artist has been put back on the global news agenda after international press agency Reuters this month published the results of a year long investigation.
This confirmed that Banksy is in fact former public school boy Robin Gunningham.
Banksy had first been outed as Gunningham by The Mail on Sunday as long ago as 2008, making last week’s findings by Reuters more corroboration than revelation.
But, in fairness to Reuters, they did unearth some tantalising new details including how they confirmed Gunningham’s identity from a signed confession that followed his arrest in 2000 for vandalising a billboard in New York.
The elusive Banksy is actually former public schoolboy Robin Gunningham. His marriage cerificate shows he tied the knot with political researcher Joy Millward in Las Vegas in 2006
Against the backdrop of Elvis impersonators and glittering casinos, Banksy and his wife said ‘I do’ in the ‘world famous’ Chapel of the Bells, according to their wedding certificate
Since then, the elusive artist has changed his name to ‘David Jones’ and settled down to a very middle class life in a chocolate-box village in this Grade II listed property in rural Somerset
This is the only known photo in existence of Banksy aka Robin Gunningham aka David Jones
His wife Joy Millward, who worked for Labour MP Austin Mitchell, has changed her name to ‘Joy Jones’. The couple have at least one grown up daughter from their 20 year marriage
Now the Mail can give the fullest picture yet to the emerging Banksy story – adding some Las Vegas sparkle for the first time as well as revealing where and how he lives now.
But first – back to Chapel of Bells.
It was there, against a backdrop of Elvis impersonators and glittering casinos, the spray can-wielding satirist and activist married his girlfriend, political researcher Joy Millward, who worked for the Labour MP Austin Mitchell, on 2 January 2006.
The couple’s State of Nevada wedding certificate has now been obtained by The Mail On Sunday.
It shows that Banksy, who was already by then gaining a world wide profile under that alias, used his real name, Robin Gunningham, for the ceremony with Miss Millward.
But he was soon to disassociate himself from his birth name and to switch to the much harder to find name of ‘David Jones’.
And it is under this rather more prosaic alias – one of the most common name combinations in the UK – rather than ‘Banksy’ that he is known by neighbours in the chocolate-box village where he and the former Miss Millward live in rural Somerset. The couple have at least one grown up daughter.
Perhaps ironically given the number of times he has surreptitiously redecorated the property of others without their consent, we understand Banksy/Mr Gunningham/Mr Jones fiercely guards the details of his own residence.
So out of deference to that position we have refrained from specifying its exact whereabouts – but we can reveal that his very middle class home and life contrasts starkly with his carefully-cultivated and globally-recognised edgy image.
Because rather than the gritty inner city he depicts and often works in, Banksy actually lives in the heart of the rural area known as ‘the Somerset golden triangle’.
It acquired this estate agents’ soubriquet because of the stratospheric increase in property values that followed inbound investment from luxury high end venues like The Newt, Babington House and Hauser & Worth to the area.
The village where the ostensible Mr and Mrs Jones live in a very comfortable Grade II listed detached home consists of winding lanes connecting stone cottages to a charming country pub, a smart general shop and post office, and an historic church.
Banksy’s true identity as Robin Gunningham was unearthed by TMOS in 2008
He is known to neighbours as simply ‘David’ and most apparently have no idea of his true identity.
During his 12 years of residency, ‘Mr Jones’ has yet to spray paint anyone’s wall with trademark images of girls with balloons or chimpanzees – but instead is only occasionally glimpsed tending to the vegetable patch in his back gardens, where he also keeps chickens in a coop.
He bought the attractive house in 2014, from a fellow artist, and has done little to alter it – as befits its listed status – beyond general upkeep and the agreed removal of some overbearing trees.
On occasion he is spotted walking through the genteel village, usually sporting sunglasses – but that’s as high profile as he gets.
And perhaps the only clue that ‘David’ is more of a VIP than his neighbours may realise is given by imposing security gates and CCTV cameras at his home, the latter perhaps ironic considering the regularity with which he has critically satirised surveillance culture in his work as Banksy.
But while he may be staggeringly wealthy, Mr Jones is anything but ostentatious – he and his wife both drive far from new SUVs, while he dresses for the gardening he enjoys rather than in the style of Las Vegas.
The furtive artist’s immediate neighbours are mostly elderly and not thought to be conversant with Banksy’s work. But there is a long-standing rumour among younger parishioners of a local connection.
Another investigator who has immersed himself in the world of Banksy is Spanish private detective Francisco Marco who first traced him to this West Country village, a 50-minute drive from his native Bristol.
And Mr Marco said that one of the key pieces of evidence that connects the young public schoolboy to the street artist and the Somerset home owner is the Vegas wedding 20 years ago.
Mr Marco said this week: ‘When you investigate someone, one of the most revealing documents is their marriage certificate – these are public records.
‘I found that Robin Gunningham got married in Las Vegas in 2006.
‘Las Vegas is a classic destination for discreet, quick weddings, ideal for someone who wants to leave as little trace as possible.
‘The interesting thing is that at that time, Banksy was already hugely famous – he had just held his ‘Barely Legal’ exhibition in Los Angeles – but the marriage certificate appeared under his real name, Gunningham, not under any alias. That gave me a key piece of the puzzle.’
Gunningham was born in Bristol in 1973 and this is his former childhood home in Stoke Bishop
Gunningham (centre) attended the £9,240-a-year Bristol Cathedral School where former pupils confirmed his identity and recalled how he had enjoyed experimenting with graffiti
Marco said he was then able to work out where Banksy lived by tracing real estate and documentary evidence and cross-referencing property records with the aliases he had identified.
He said: ‘It’s a discreet, rural, and well-protected property. I call it a ‘bunker’ because the security is remarkable for a house in the English countryside.’
‘In the area they are known as Mr and Mrs Jones. They lead a quiet and discreet life.
‘I know he regularly meets with other painters and artists in the area, and I assume they know perfectly well who he is, but they’re part of that inner circle that has kept the secret for decades.
‘That environment has been crucial in allowing Gunningham to continue creating undisturbed.’
Last week’s investigation linked to a 26-year-old police report in New York and identified Gunningham as the man arrested in 2000 for defacing a Marc Jacobs billboard.
According to the documents, he later admitted making a ‘humorous adjustment’ to the advert after a night out drinking.
The investigation also found that Gunningham travelled internationally under the name David Jones, including a trip to Ukraine where Banksy murals soon appeared.
Immigration records said that Jones left Ukraine in October 2022 on the same day as Robert del Naja, a founding member of the Bristol trip-hop group Massive Attack and long time close friend and associate of Banksy.
This further showed that the date of birth on the passport belonging to ‘Jones’ matched that on the documents of Gunningham.
The Mail on Sunday first revealed Banksy’s identity 18 years ago after obtaining a photograph of the artist with a spray can at his feet, taken in Jamaica in 2004 which was published on the Internet before being bought by a PR company and removed from circulation
This newspaper also traced Gunningham’s fellow pupils at the £9,240-a-year Bristol Cathedral School who confirmed his identity and recalled how Gunningham had enjoyed experimenting with graffiti before matching his move from Bristol to Hackney in London at the turn of the Millennium with that of the artist.
Banksy was once hailed by Time magazine as one of the world’s most influential people and is now estimated to be worth more than £50 million.
His most expensive artwork Love is in the Bin, which was partially shredded during a Sotheby’s auction in 2021, sold for a staggering £18.58 million.
He emerged from the Bristol underground art scene in the 1990s, when the city was a hub for graffiti and countercultural street art – as well as for its music scene around trip hop bands Massive Attack and Portishead.
His distinctive stencil style was developed in part to work quickly and avoid police detection.
In 2018, Banksy’s Girl with Balloon painting self-destructed via a hidden shredder in its frame immediately after selling for £1.1 million at Sotheby’s. After the painting was sold to a phone bidder, an alarm was triggered and the work glided through the hidden shredder to the amazement of onlookers at the auction house
Caught gleefully videoing the artwork being shredded, this man bears an uncanny resemblance to Gunningham. Shortly afterwards, the artist posted a photo of the shocked crowd at Sotheby’s on Instagram with the words ‘Going, going, gone…
Banksy himself has always maintained silence on his true identity and declined to comment on press reports though his lawyer disputed details contained within the Reuters investigation.
His representatives further warned that attempts to identify him could endanger the artist and interfere with his work.
There remains a suspicion that full revelation of his real life circumstances might also significantly devalue that work – by destroying the image of its creator.
