HALF SHREDDED ARTWORK SELLS FOR $25M IN LONDON AUCTION
LONDON—A partially shredded canvas of one of Banksy’s most celebrated works sold at auction in London on Thursday for £18.58 million ($25.38 million), a new record for the British artist, three years after the artwork was bought for a fraction of that price.
The artwork—now called “Love is in the Bin”—sold for nearly £1.1 million ($1.5 million) at the same Sotheby’s auction house in October 2018, before it dramatically passed through a shredder hidden in the large Victorian-style frame moments later.
The surreal prank was orchestrated by the elusive and irreverent Banksy, whose identity is said to be known to only a handful of friends.
Thursday evening’s sale, which saw nine bidders battle for around 10 minutes for the work formerly called “Girl With Balloon,” beats the previous record of £16.75 million ($25 million) set for Banksy in March.
Quick climb
Bidding for “Love is in the Bin” quickly climbed from the starting price of £2.5 million ($3.4 million), with auctioneer Oliver Barker reveling in the drama.
“I can’t tell you how terrified I am to bring down this hammer,” he said as the final bid went unchallenged.
The work was reportedly sold to a private investor. The seventh lot in a wide-ranging contemporary arts offering, it had an estimated selling price of between £4-6 million.
“It is almost three years to the day since one of the most ingenious moments of performance art this century made auction history,” Alex Branczik of Sotheby’s said following the record haul.
Unpredictable
“Banksy is no stranger to making headlines and this latest chapter in his story has captured imaginations across the world—we can only begin to guess what might come next.”
The 2018 stunt, which poked fun at the traditionally staid world of fine art, is typical of the graffiti artist’s disruptive style evident since his work first began appearing on the streets of Bristol in southwest England in the 1980s.
It was the latest in a long history of unpredictable moves for the provocative artist.