Blake Morrison

It was that beginning curiosity and a tantalizing clue we got at that moment that started us down this path.

One of our journalists who worked on this, Simon Gardner, was in Ukraine in November of 2022.

And Banksy had just been there.

And Simon, who's a big Banksy fan, got curious and went there.

And he created a photo lineup of people who'd been rumored to be Banksy on his cell phone and started showing it around to some villagers who had met or seen the artist at work.

One of the things that we talked about as we were going through this was that we were going to cover him like we cover anyone else.

Whether we like or dislike his work, and frankly, we all like his work quite a bit, we felt it was important that there were issues of power and access and accountability.

And we also thought it was sort of curious that somebody who has been so anti-establishment his entire career is now really embraced by the establishment.

Some people don't think that's a good thing.

I'm not judging one way or the other, but it certainly happened in September in London when he painted a mural on the Royal Courts of Justice building.

And other street artists there said, look, if it weren't Banksy, we would have been prosecuted.

I think people who are fans of Banksy are really underestimating him.

And the idea that our story was going to have some profound effect on his ability to be creative and to do the next incredible thing strikes me as selling him short.

And if you ask me, I'd bet on Banksy.

My advice is simple.

Don't read the story.