Banksy’s secret shredder did not go entirely to plan
BANKSY has revealed that his artwork was meant to be entirely shredded, however, a mechanism malfunctioned.
The secretive street artist posted a video online on Tuesday that showed the prank unfold at Sotheby’s on Oct 5.
His Girl With Balloon was bought for £1.04million by a European art collector – but almost as soon as the hammer fell, the canvas was passed through a shredder hidden in the large Victorianstyle frame, leaving the bottom half in tatters and only a solitary red balloon left on a white background in the frame.
In the video, entitled Shred the Love, the Director’s Cut, Banksy reveals that “in rehearsals” the shredding had worked “every time”, with footage of a test run showing a print passing through completely, so that none of the canvas remained intact.
The artist also confirmed that the auction house had not been let in on the secret, in a post on his Instagram: “Shredding the Girls and Balloon. Some people think it didn’t really shred. It did. Some people think the auction house were in on it, they weren’t.” The three-minute-long video shows a hooded figure constructing the shredder in a workshop, before cutting to the auction, where the cameraman mingles with guests near the painting. A hand is shown pushing a button in a black box to set off the destruction as soon as the artwork is sold.
After the prank, the piece was granted certification by Pest Control, Banksy’s authentication body, and was given the new title Love Is In The Bin.
Sotheby’s confirmed that the anonymous buyer, a long-standing female client of the auction house, had agreed to buy the work for the price agreed at the auction sale.