The buyer of the Banksy print that was partially shredded immediately after its auction will go ahead with the £1m purchase amid claims that its value will have significantly increased following the self-destruction.
The art world was left stunned when around half of Girl With Balloon, one of the street artist’s most famous stencil drawings, was reduced to ribbons by a shredder built into the frame after the hammer went down at Sotheby’s in London on 5 October.
Strips of the 2006 piece were shown dangling from the bottom of the frame as technicians at the auction house swiftly took it off the wall and carried it out of view. The auctioneer declared to the packed saleroom: “We are going to move on.”
The transformed work has been given a new title, Love Is in the Bin, and has been granted a certificate by Pest Control, Banksy’s authentication body.
The buyer, a female European collector and a longstanding client of Sotheby’s, confirmed on Thursday that she would proceed with the £1.04m deal. “When the hammer came down last week and the work was shredded, I was at first shocked, but gradually I began to realise that I would end up with my own piece of art history,” she said.
It was unclear whether the auction house was aware that the painting contained a shredder, and a spokesperson said the revelation was a “surprise”.
A video posted on social media by Banksy stated that the device was secretly built into the painting “a few years ago … in case it was ever put up for auction”, while his agent said last week that the artist was unlikely to have cooperated with Sotheby’s, since he would not collude with an institution.
Sotheby’s plans to show the new artwork at its London galleries on 13 and 14 October, before its presumed delivery to the buyer.
Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art, Europe, said: “Banksy didn’t destroy an artwork in the auction, he created one. Following his surprise intervention on the night, we are pleased to confirm the sale of the artist’s newly titled Love Is in the Bin, the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction.”
He went on to canonise Banksy’s act, placing it within a long tradition of artists, such as Rauschenberg, Metzger, Tinguely and Landy, who have variously destroyed both art and their own possessions. “Banksy has cleverly nestled himself in the pages of art history,” Sotheby’s said.
Girl With Balloon first appeared on a wall on the South Bank in London, accompanied by the sentence: “There is always hope.” Art critics have suggested that the piece is intended as a critique of a society that makes children grow old too fast.
The framed stencil spray painting shows a girl reaching towards a heart-shaped balloon, while the gallery version featured spray paint and acrylic on canvas, mounted on a board.
During the 2017 general election, Banksy briefly offered people a free print of the artwork if they voted against the Conservative party, until he was made aware that he risked being censured by the Electoral Commission.
Last week’s self-destruction was the latest anti-establishment statement by the elusive street artist, who has travelled the world etching progressive messages on to unlikely canvases.
“Banksy has a history with pranking art establishments, having previously pulled stunts in the Louvre, Tate Britain, the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Natural History Museum. Sotheby’s now joins that long and distinguished list,” Sotheby’s said.
Various other Banksy works are due to go under the hammer elsewhere next month, with auctioneers promising that no items will “shred or explode”.
