It was under the cover of darkness that Banksy's latest work mysteriously appeared, plinth and all, in one of the busiest spots in central London.

The 25-foot-tall resin sculpture of a suited man blindly stepping off the platform with a flag flying into his face, has already sparked fierce debate around its meaning since its arrival on Wednesday.

But the question niggling away at everyone - including Westminster Council bosses who insist they had no prior warning - is just how exactly did the elusive artist manage to pull off such a stunt?

Now it seems Banksy himself has answered that question with a series of clues featured in the same social media post officially confirming the work as his own. 

Posted to his Instagram account yesterday, the video lifts the lid on the logistics that went into bringing his latest artwork to Pall Mall close to statues of Edward VII, Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War Memorial.

The camera first cuts to a series of yellow traffic cones marking off the area, while a large low-loader truck rolls into view in the background.

Then there are close-ups of stabilisers, a hydraulic crane and a large metal hook, coupled with at least one figure in an orange hi-viz vest as the statue is gently lowered onto the plinth. 

No other traffic is visible, indicating the statue must have been installed during the early hours of Wednesday morning. 

In the matter of mere moments, the artwork that would have taken Banksy months to complete stands atop its new plinth, looking out towards some of London's most iconic landmarks. 

Westminster Council told Daily Mail that they were not aware of the artist's plans before the statue appeared - a position that Banksy himself has confirmed, with his spokesperson saying it was 'unsolicited'. 

Hours after appearing, scores of commuters stopped by to take photographs, as word spread that the famous insignia at the bottom of the figure could be Banksy's.

None of Banksy's murals from recent years, however, have been signed. 

In a brief statement, a spokesperson for Banksy said: 'The artist revealed the unsolicited monument at some point in the early hours of [Wednesday].

'It is positioned on a traffic island in Pall Mall where Banksy said "there was a bit of a gap".' 

The council said it was now considering options as to what will happen to the statue without elaborating further, adding that it would remain for the time being.

In a statement to Daily Mail, a spokesperson said: 'We welcome Banksy’s latest sculpture in Westminster, which makes a striking addition to the city’s vibrant public art scene. 

'While we have taken initial steps to protect the statue, at this time it will remain accessible for the public to view and enjoy.'

Some have interpreted the statue as a commentary on blind patriotism, leadership or following others without thinking for themselves.

Banksy's last artwork, a mural on the side of a skyscraper, depicts a child lying next to another person who is pointing up to the building and sky above.

The unsigned statue appeared on December 22 last year beneath the Centre Point building near Tottenham Court Road, and showed the child in a beanie hat and Wellingtons lying on the floor next to another person in a bobble hat.

The same artwork also appeared on the side of a building a few miles away in Queen's Mews in Bayswater.

In September, a Banksy mural showing a protester on the floor holding a blood-spattered placard while a judge hit him with a gavel appeared on the front of the Royal Courts of Justice building.

It was swiftly covered up by officials, with security guards seen patrolling in front of a screen concealing the artwork.

The artwork followed almost 900 people being arrested in central London at a demonstration supporting banned group Palestine Action, in what was thought to be Britain's biggest ever mass arrest.

One of Banksy's most striking moments was in 2003 when he disguised himself as a pensioner and installed a piece in a vacant spot in the Tate Britain in London.

His artwork Girl With Balloon self-destructed in a Sotheby's London saleroom when descending into a shredder in 2018.

The multimillionaire Britsh graffiti artist, who began his iconic street art more than 25 years ago, has sold his artworks for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

His identity had been shrouded in secrecy until The Mail on Sunday launched an investigation in 2008, naming Robin Gunningham as the Bristol artist. 

Then in March of this year, his identity was put back on the global news agenda after international press agency Reuters published the results of a year-long investigation.

This confirmed that Gunningham was indeed the elusive artist.

Among the details that emerged was that Banksy had married his girlfriend, political researcher Joy Millward, on 2 January 2006 in Las Vegas.

The couple's State of Nevada wedding certificate shows the artist using his real name Robin Gunningham, for the ceremony.

He has also used the much harder to find name of 'David Jones', by which 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.

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.

Other pieces of evidence that have come to light include a 26-year-old police report in New York, which 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 Reuters 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 £50million.

His most expensive artwork Love is in the Bin, which was partially shredded during a Sotheby's auction in 2018, sold for a staggering £18.58million three years later.