Banksy's paintings in the exhibit all fetched six figures when they were shown in the gallery back in December 2007. Centineo says he "collaborated on curating" the exhibit, but doesn't otherwise represent the artist. Reached for comment, he tells us that "Gunningham's name has been floating around the Internet for a while, but I can tell you it's not correct." Indeed, as Gawker noted, the second alleged photo of Gunningham, which includes his name in the subhead, has been online since 1999.
Centineo could be participating in the smoke-and-mirrors game that has long shrouded Banksy's true identity, but it didn't seem like he was lying. (Another woman who says she was hit on by Banksy in 2007 also tells us that the man in the photo isn't Bansky.) It's also hard to imagine that Gunningham, if he's actually Banksy, would give away so much on Facebook after all the pains he's gone through to keep his identity a secret. Maybe Banksy is actually a collective of artists, as has been theorized? That could explain why some people deny that Gunningham is Banksy; it's possible that the "Banksy" they dealt with wasn't him. Maybe we'll never know! We certainly have no idea. But perhaps it's better that way.