Ever the merry prankster, Bristol-born artist Banksy caused quite the stir by shredding his “Girl with Balloon” painting shortly after it was sold at a Sotheby’s auction on Friday (October 5, 2018) night.
On Instagram, Banksy uploaded a video explaining he had build a shredder into the frame of the painting that he planned to activate were it ever sold at auction. On the video, a graphic reads, “A few years ago, I secretly build a shredder into a painting in case it was ever put up for auction…”
The video shows Banksy building the shredder into the painting and then switches to Sotheby’s where the painting is being bid on. Not long after the winning bid of £1.04 million was declared, an alarm went off and the painting began to move through the shredder. It appears only the top two-thirds of the painting was shredded.
Banksy initially took down the video but reposted it on Instagram in the afternoon (October 6th) with the caption, “The urge to destroy is also a creative urge,” a quote attributed to Palo Picasso.
“It appears we just got Banksy-ed,” said Alex Branczik, head of contemporary art at Sotheyby’s London division. We have talked with the successful purchaser who was surprised by the story. We are in discussion about next steps.”
A statement on the incident read: “The unexpected incident became instant art world history and certainly marks the first time in auction history that a work of art automatically shredded itself after coming under the hammer.”
Given the massive coverage of the event, there is talk the painting is now worth more in its shredded state than its original form.
Check out images and Banksy’s video below.
