The actor says he has worked with the Bristolian artist many times
The Well Hung Lover on Park Street (Image: Getty Images)
Actor Keith Allen says he hung naked from a scaffolding pole to pose for a Banksy piece of artwork in Bristol.
Lily Allen’s father has also refuted recent claims by Reuters that Robin Gunningham is the famous Bristolian artist.
Sharing a post on Facebook, Allen, 72, said the Well Hung Lover artwork, in Frogmore Street, was based on him. To back up his claims, the Vindaloo singer shared a picture of a framed photograph of Banksy’s original cartoon for the stencil, which he said is signed by the man himself.
“It reads….’you make a beautiful muse’,” Allen wrote. “And you can see its signed…Banksy.”
He added: “I hung naked from a scaffolding pole in a studio in Vauxhall for the photo.”
Keith Allen pictured in 2016(Image: Karwai Tang/WireImage)
Allen went on to say Gunningham, also known as David Jones, was not Banksy and added “I know because I have worked with him on numerous occasions.”
He said: “The man being identified as Banksy I can assure is not he.”
Well Hung Lover might be Banksy’s most recognisable artwork in Bristol and features a naked man hanging from a window, hiding from another man looking out with a woman in her underwear in the background.
It appeared in 2006 on the side of a sexual health clinic and was the first piece of legal street art in the UK, after Bristol City Council polled local residents and found an overwhelming majority were in favour of keeping it. It was later granted retrospective permission and protections.
Also known as Naked Man Hanging out a Window, the artwork appears to tell the story of an affair between the naked man and woman, with a suspicious husband searching for his wife’s lover. It has been defaced twice over the years, once with blue paintballs in 2009 and again with the words “F*CK BANKSY” in 2018.
A year-long Reuters investigations claims to have identified the anonymous Bristol artist. A team of journalists examined every statement the artist has made about himself, interviewed more than a dozen insiders, and obtained previously sealed U.S. court documents and police files in their mission to reveal the artist’s true identity.
The Well Hung Lover(Image: Getty Images)
Mark Stephens, Banksy’s long-serving legal representative, has responded without explicitly refuting the allegation, stating that Banksy “does not accept that many of the details contained within your enquiry are correct.”
Whilst neither confirming nor denying Banksy’s identity, Stephens urged Reuters to scrap publication, contending it would violate the artist’s privacy, disrupt his creative work and potentially place him in danger, reports the Mirror.