Banksy painting sold But cut into shreds

LONDON: The woman who bid more than 1 million pounds for a painting by the mysterious British artist Banksy which shred itself into pieces at the moment of the sale has gone ahead with the purchase, auction house Sotheby’s said on Thursday.The bottom half of “Girl with Balloon”, one of Banksy’s best-known works, was sucked into a shredder hidden in its frame as the hammer fell last Friday after a bid of 1,042,000 pounds— matching Banksy’s all-time record. “When the hammer came down last week and the work was shredded, I was at first shocked, but gradually I began to realize that I would end up with my own piece of art history,” said the buyer, an unnamed European collector.