Banksy shocked the world yet again. This time, the elusive England-based street artist’s painting, Girl With Red Balloon, got a Mission Impossible’s ‘self-destruct’ treatment moments after the hammer went down to seal the deal at a cool £1 million (that was inclusive of buyer’s premium, btw), or about US$1.3 million. This is not even a joke. The just-sold painting was destroyed by shredding, right there and then, after someone decided to shell out a million pounds for it.
This happened at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale in London on Friday (October 05, 2018) evening. Sotheby’s said the painting was “signed and dedicated and that the vendor had acquired it from the artists in 2006.” But apparently, it was never Banksy’s intention to have his any of his works to go on the block. As it turns out, the prolific artist had secretly built a shredder into the frame (that kind of explains the frame’s usual thickness) of the painting and it was thought that someone had remotely activated the shredder after the auction was finalized, destroying the half of the painting in the process – witnessed by a crowd of avid art collectors and auction officials.
It looks like Banksy was having some fun out of it:
Following the shocking event, a video posted on YouTube on October 06 on Banksy’s YouTube channel revealed that the shredder was built into the frame “in case it was ever put up for auction.” So, yeah, it is clear as day that this was intentional and if you ask me, I’d say this bizarre auction incident sure sounds like a movie scene being played out. Never in the history of auctions have such things happen. Well, it looks like someone just got Banksy-ed real good.
The winning bidder wasn’t present. He/she won’t the bid through an auction official over the phone, but I can only imagine the horror on the bidder’s face if he/she was there.
Image: Banksy.
Source: sky news.
