The Banksy Shredded Painting
In 2018, seconds after one of Banksy's paintings sold at auction for over a million pounds, it slid down through the frame and shredded itself in front of the room.
It was the most talked about prank in modern art, and it made the half destroyed work worth far more than the whole.
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The moment it happened
At a Sotheby's auction in London, Banksy's famous image Girl with Balloon sold for 1,042,000 pounds on the evening of 5 October 2018. As the hammer fell, an alarm sounded and the canvas began to feed downward through the bottom of its own frame, emerging in shreds.
Banksy had hidden a shredder inside the thick frame years earlier, set to trigger if the work ever went under the hammer.
The malfunction
The plan was for the canvas to shred completely, but the mechanism jammed halfway, leaving the lower half in ribbons and the top intact.
Banksy later released a video showing the device and admitting, in effect, that the stunt had not gone fully to plan.
Worth more in ribbons
Rather than ruining the work, the shredding made it legendary. The buyer went ahead with the purchase, and the piece was renamed Love is in the Bin.
When it returned to auction, the half shredded canvas sold for 18.6 million pounds at Sotheby's on 14 October 2021, many times the original price.
The afterlife of the prank
The half shredded canvas was authenticated under its new name by Banksy's own office, Pest Control, turning an act of destruction into an official new artwork. It went on public display in museums, drawing crowds who came to see the famous wreck.
The auction house, far from being embarrassed, leaned into the spectacle, and the episode is now taught as a case study in how provocation and the art market feed each other.
Questions about the shredding
What was shredded?
Banksy's Girl with Balloon, at auction on 5 October 2018.
How?
A shredder hidden in the frame triggered after the sale.
Did it fully shred?
No, it jammed halfway.
What is it worth now?
It sold for 18.6 million pounds in October 2021, renamed Love is in the Bin.
More secrets to unlock
The prank that backfired upward
Banksy tried to mock the art market by destroying his own work, and the market simply paid eighteen times more for the wreckage, a joke that turned into his most valuable piece. More in the Banksy guide.