On October 5, 2018, Sotheby’s Auction House in London sold an original piece of Banksy artwork called “Girl With Balloon”, which fetched a cool £1,042,000 GBP ($1.4 million USD). Unbeknownst to auctioneers, however, the artist had created this piece several years ago with a built-in shredder, which was activated as soon as the gavel dropped. Sotheby’s acted with great speed to stop the process but arrived seconds too late.
The intention was for the piece to completely shred itself, but some sort of malfunction occurred in the circuitry and the machine stopped halfway through the process. Afterwards, Banksy lamented in his behind-the-scenes “Director’s Cut” of this incident, that the shredded had worked perfectly during previous runs. Additionally, the artist reiterated that no one at the auction house knew of his plans
Some people think it didn’t really shred. It did. Some people think the auction house were in on it, they weren’t.
The winning bidder has decided to keep the piece as is, which has since been renamed “Love is in the Bin” and has the distinguished title of the only piece of art ever have been created during the auction process.
We are pleased to announce that the winning bidder on Banksy’s ‘Girl with Balloon’ last Friday night in London has confirmed their decision to acquire the new work that was created in our salesroom. #LoveIsInTheBin #Banksy pic.twitter.com/A4R5RUjsOd
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) October 11, 2018
Newly titled ‘Love is in the Bin’, the piece has become the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction. #LoveIsInTheBin #Banksy pic.twitter.com/HXE3bdd7Jo
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) October 11, 2018
