Please note: The press release the following was derived from has been removed from the PRLog website. At this time, we do not know the reason for the article being taken down, though we obviously are hoping that it is because it was erroneous.
According to a press release on PRLog, the notorious UK-based street artist who was simply known as Banksy was arrested yesterday by police in London. After being questioned for hours and his studio being raided, the police positively identified Banksy as the 39-year-old Bristol-native Paul William Horner, which was later confirmed by the BBC with Banksy's PR agent Jo Brooks.
During a press conference regarding the arrest, Police Chief Wayne Leppard stated: âWe had a 24-hour Anti-Graffiti Task Force monitoring different groups known to have associated with Banksy. We received word that around 2am a group of individuals left a flat speculated to be one of Bankyâs art studios. This group was followed by agents and once vandalism had occurred, we then arrested the group, 5 men total. These individuals all had ID on them except for one, and that is the one we believed to be Banksy,â said Leppard. âWe then raided the studio where this group was last seen leaving from. Inside we found thousands of dollars of counterfeit money along with future projects of vandalism. We also found a passport and ID of a Paul William Horner who matched the description of the man that we are currently holding.â Leppard continued, âHorner is currently being held without bail on charges of vandalism, conspiracy, racketeering and counterfeiting. We are also holding the other four individuals whose names we are not releasing at this time.â
Kyle Brock, a project manager for Banksy, told CNN about his concerns for further repercussions from the arrest: âIf they spent this many man-hours and brought this many charges against Banksy, I canât imagine that heâll be the only one to go down in all of this,â Brock said. âAll the beauty Paul Horner brought to this world, and the London Police can only see it as vandalism. Itâs such a shame.â
The image used above is Banksy's self-portrait, created for Wired.
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