Banksy's 'director's cut' reveals auction sabotage didn't go to plan

Anonymous street artist Banksy has revealed how his auction stunt did not go to plan.

Earlier this month Banksy’s Girl With a Ballon (2006) self-destructed moments after it was sold for more than $1.94 million at a Sotheby’s auction in London.

Seconds after the artwork went under the hammer an alarm sounded and the piece started slipping down through the gold frame and shredded.

But as the artwork got halfway through it stopped and auction house staff members removed it from the room.

Banksy has now revealed in a director’s cut of how the stunt was pulled off and that the whole artwork was meant to be shredded, not just half.

“In rehearsals it worked every time,” a video posted on YouTube by Banksy Film says.

A clip from one of the rehearsals then shows the artwork sliding the whole way through the frame.

In a video uploaded to Instagram after the stunt left people flabbergasted, Banksy revealed he installed the shredder into the frame several years ago – specifically designed to be used if it were to ever go under the hammer.

“The urge to destroy it is also a creative urge – Picasso,” he captioned the video.

Experts said Banksy’s stunt likely added value to the painting and could even be worth double its original price.

“Banksy might think that by destroying his art he’s undermining capitalists who buy it, but he’s wrong,” commented Mikael Faujour of the specialist French art magazine Artension.

“The leftovers from this destruction will acquire a new prestige and additional monetary worth.”

Since being shredded the artwork has been renamed Love Is In The Bin.