Banksy reveals how he planned artwork's self-destruction years ago
World famous graffiti artist Banksy has lifted the lid on how he managed to shred one of his paintings that had just sold at auction for almost $2 million.
The 2006 piece ‘Girl With a Balloon’ was the final lot sold for the night at Sotheby’s in Bristol, UK, when a full house was left flabbergasted as half the work was pulled through a shredder hidden in its frame.
And now in a newly uploaded video on Instagram, Banksy has explained how he installed the shredder into the frame of the painting several years ago – specifically designed to be used if it were to ever to go under the hammer.
“A few years ago I secretly built a shredder into a painting in case it ever went up for auction,” he explained.
The video shows a hooded man constructing the shredder before placing it inside the frame.
“The urge to destroy is also a creative urge – Picasso,” Banksy captioned the video.
As the shredder tore the famous piece into strips, Alex Branczik, the auction house’s head of contemporary art, told onlookers: “we just got Bansky-ed”, and labelled it “genius”.
He claimed he had no idea the artwork, which sold for AUD$1.94million, was going to be destroyed.
Mr Branczik said he’s never experienced “a situation where a painting has spontaneously shredded”.
“You could argue that the work is now more valuable,” he said.
Banksy initially shared an image of the artwork being shredded on Instagram and captioned it “going, going, gone.”
Some inside the auction room claim to have seen Banksy among stunned onlookers as the chaos unfolded.
‘Girl With a Balloon’ originally appeared on a wall in Great Eastern Street, London, with the gallery version using spray paint and acrylic on canvas, mounted on a board.
Sotheby’s refused to reveal who had bought the piece before it was shredded.
The artist, who has never revealed his true identity, shot to fame with his thought-provoking works often spray-painted on the side of British buildings.
