Banksy painting self-destructs seconds after auction

Banksy innovates yet a new kind of guerilla art

A Banksy painting self-destructed immediately after the gavel declared it sold for £953,829 at a Sotheby's auction, according to the Art Newspaper.

Right as the 'Girl with a Balloon' (2006) painting was sold, an alarm was triggered inside the work of art and the canvas slipped through a shredder.

The Banksy painting before and after it shredded. Photo:Twitter@Ekanaut

“It appears we just got Banksy-ed,” said Alex Branczik, the auction house’s head of contemporary art, Europe.

“He is arguably the greatest British street artist, and tonight we saw a little piece of Banksy genius,” he said, adding that he was “not in on the ruse”.

“We are busy figuring out what this means in an auction context,” Branczik said. “The shredding is now part of the integral art work. We have not experienced a situation where a painting has spontaneously shredded, upon achieving a record for the artist.”

“You could argue that the work is now more valuable,” Branczik said. “It’s certainly the first piece to be spontaneously shredded as an auction ends.”

This article originally appeared on the Art Newspaper.