There’s an unknown artist that is known for his stunts around the world. He’s known to the art-world as “Banksy,” and his latest prank may be the best yet.
On Friday, the gavel fell at Sotheby’s auction house in London, and Banksy’s “Girl with Balloon” was sold for $1.4 million. It was an iconic image of a girl reaching out for a red, heart-shaped balloon.
But just moments after the engaging image was sold, Banksy’s “Girl with Balloon” was reduced to shreds. The picture literally self-destructed. This was the latest display of the anonymous British graffiti artist’s disruptive career.
And some say it could be his most perfect art world prank.
Banksy apparently had a shredder hidden inside the frame of the artwork, according to a release from Southeby. They added that the art “self-destructed.”
The unknown artist had this to say about his stunt on his Instagram account: “Going, going, gone…” and a posted picture showed stunned onlookers as the shredded art emerges from the bottom of the frame.
“It appears we just got Banksy-ed,” Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s senior director of contemporary art, said in the news release.
It has not yet been indicated just how the shredder started operating and just the right time after the auction was finished. It was likely activated by a remote mechanism. If that is the case, someone on the scene must have done the activation.
The auction price of $1.4 million for the spray paint and acrylic on canvas “Girl with Balloon” tied the artist’s previous record set in 2008.
You can watch a clip of the onlookers just after the self-destruction happened. Do you think the value of the work has decreased or increased after the prank? Let us know in the comment section below this article.
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