Banksy addresses shredded artwork

Banksy posted a new video to his website Tuesday implying the partial shredding of his Girl With Balloon at a London auction was supposed to have been complete. The video shows the famously anonymous artist constructing the shredding mechanism inside a frame and pushing a button to activate the destruction at Sotheby’s in London earlier this month. A European collector bought the piece for the equivalent of nearly $1.8 million. The partial shredding drew speculation that the act was a stunt to increase the value of the painting, but the end of the new video notes: “In rehearsals it worked every time ...” A complete shredding of the same design is then shown.