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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-45770028
<p class="story-body__introduction">A stencil spray painting by elusive artist Banksy shredded itself after it was sold for more than £1m.</p>
The framed Girl With Balloon, one of the artist's best known works, was auctioned by Sotheby's in London.The piece which shows a girl reaching towards a heart-shaped balloon was the final work sold at the auction.
However, moments after the piece went under the hammer, the canvas passed through a shredder that was hidden inside the frame.
Posting a picture of the moment on Instagram, Banksy wrote: "Going, going, gone..."
The 2006 piece sold for £1.042m on Friday night.
"It appears we just got Banksy-ed," said Alex Branczik, Sotheby's senior director and head of contemporary art in Europe.
Certainly a more interesting way of selling things
“It appears we just got Banksy-ed,” said Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s senior director and head of contemporary art in Europe.
Yeah, right after helping to find an appropriately hidden power outlet.
yeah cause batteries don't exist
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Batteries-Operated-Paper-Shredder/dp/B0042A10CQ
I had a summer job as a teenager working for a car dealer who sold used cars that pretty much did that.
yeah cause batteries don’t exist
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Batteries-Operated-Paper-Shredder/dp/B0042A10CQ/a >
do they hold their charge for 12 years, or are remote controlled?
I'm not massively up on banksys work, but didn't that originally get painted on a wall? If so did he then recreate it on canvas for someone?
Loving the grandpa comments ignoring all the tech progress of the last 50 years.
= :87)
I thought this was a flounce thread , disappointed .
I thought this was a flounce thread , disappointed .
Are you going to leave the forum forever as a result?
I’m not massively up on banksys work, but didn’t that originally get painted on a wall? If so did he then recreate it on canvas for someone?
Its all stencils chaps...
There's a video of it shredding - the staff take it off the wall mid shred, no power cable.
(I've amended the thread title to something more obvious, so I don't have to spend all night closing duplicate threads.)
However, I don’t think that’s how he spells his name.
Pantalons. Corrected, thanks.
Banksy is good at publicity, it sucks me into taking about their work. They have a good eye for a location and a message but the quality of the work is pretty poor. There are other street artists doing far more interesting work IMO.
There is talk that Banksy could be 3D from Bristol based Massive Attack. This is based on an interview with Goldie where he let this slip.
I'm Banksy
I'm Banksy and so's my wife.
I’m Banksy
No, I'm Banksy!!
Brilliant stuff. That's art. 🙂
Easy come easy go ... 😀
Art? 😀
It’s nothing but another way of him PRing his work. Now the half-shredded piece of work will be worth even more and more people will be suckered in to buying his work thanks to even more publicity for his pretty average work with way above average publicity.
Do they not realise Banksy is sending them up?
I find the whole art world quite astonishing in this way - the emperors new clothes. I have a friend who in the early 80s made a sale with some daubs while a student - simply just take a 4" brush and in a single colour make streaks horizontally across a canvas. ( she had been experimenting with a wide range of styles at that time) Having made one sale with that she has simply repeated it for 30 years and now is a well respected artist making a living from it. I haven't dared ask her if she believes in it but the nonsense I have seen written about her stuff makes my teeth curl One she did in mid green - just a plain canvas with streaks of green like a badly painted first coat of emulsion " You have really captured the essence of purest green with this one - your best yet"
Awesome, the irony is the only point of the Art Work.
Awesome, the irony is the only point of the Art Work.
So true, but I cant help myself.
It’s nothing but another way of him PRing his work
Cos, yeah, he needs more publicity.. for.. erm?
Do they not realise Banksy is sending them up?
Perhaps he's speaking more to them than the rest of us realize.
Cos, yeah, he needs more publicity.. for.. erm?
Greed?
Those that got such amount of disposable income to spend on something like this must have accumulated the wealth the easy ways ... hence they deserve to spend it the easy way too .... easy come easy go.
They should pay more. 😀
And whilst I am at it, can we ban forever TJ every using the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ thing for anything to do with art and creativity? It’s getting really very tired.
It’s all a bit bonkers. I bought a Banksy print for my husband donkeys years ago and we now spend more insuring it each year than it cost me to buy it 😂
the girl is destroyed and the love she could never have still remains out of reach.
#Genius
Well worth a milion pounds
You have really captured the essence of purest green with this one – your best yet”
I’d guess that was a joke. Someone is a Black Adder fan.
Nope - no joke Drac. Deadly serious.
@wallop me too. I spent a grand on a signed print in 1999 with my student loan. Grannies bowling little bombs. It now plays a significant role in my pension plans
Risky to have a piece of art as a significant part of a pension plan. Banksy pictures may go down as well as up.
I volunteer at the NT with his Uncle (who makes some lovely walking sticks)
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
Banksy pictures may go down as well as up.
Traditionally the value of an artists work rises after their death so if he could invert that and shred the monetary value of all his art it would be the ultimate **** you to the art establishment.
Risky to have a piece of art as a significant part of a pension plan. Banksy pictures may go down as well as up.
My friend had a pair of Rolf Harris paintings valued at £15k. They’re not anymore.
Grannies bowling little bombs
I missed buying that one for £250.
> sad face <
TJ, it is safe to say you are not the target market for art like this!
I think this is brilliant, and they are of course well aware that Banksy is sending up the art world. That's the whole point of it.
Banksys stuff I really like.
My comment was about my pal who lives in a world of a circle jerk and once having found something that sells has kept on doing it for 30 years but it somethig I cannot see the merit in as it is literally one colour streaked across a page with a 4" brucsh and takes her seconds to do. Even stuff I don't like I can often see the merit in I'd put up a picture of her stuff but it would be rather unfair and could be tracked back
<span style="display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.4px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">once having found something that sells has kept on doing it for 30 years</span>
Well someone likes it...
I couldn't see the merit in Pollock's paintings til I talked (and listened) to someone who did. They still do nothing for me but at least I can see there's a bit more to it than splodges of paint.
As for making a living from it - assuming your friend isn't a famous painter - there's definitely a market for pretty splodges of colour from an interior design point of view. I rather like that kind of abstract thing on walls to add colour, but to me they are only ever just pretty paint splodges.
I’m not the only one of the opinion it was merely a PR stunt...
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/10/06/banksy-s-self-destructing-painting-the-pr-stunt-the-year
I’m not the only one of the opinion it was merely a PR stunt…
PR Stunt and sending up those who can splash a million on a painting are not mutually exclusive things
I think it was brilliant. PR stunt / performance art / send up delete as appropriate
Drac - they folk involved are all american and the quote came from an art critic
Some fanny will likely pay double for it now.
great pr stunt.
who on earth spends a grand of their student loan on art? mine went on rent....
@wallop me too. I spent a grand on a signed print in 1999 with my student loan. Grannies bowling little bombs. It now plays a significant role in my pension plans
That was a lot back then! Our first one was £75. Annoyingly the signed one was £150 but at the time I couldn’t afford it (nnnggghhn!). Next one, signed, was about £450 and that was about 10 years ago.
He's done very well considering he copied the style..
Google Blek le Rat
Looking at the photos, I'm inclined to believe it wasn't shredded. I think the print wound down and a separate pre-shredded canvas wound out of the bottom of the print.
They released a video of them setting it up
Some fanny will likely pay double for it now.
That “fanny” is way smarter than you, for a start they have got themselves into a position that enables them to spend 1million plus on frivolous art, plus they will more than likely make money on their investment in what is now more well known than most other contemporary art pieces.
That “fanny” is way smarter than you, for a start they have got themselves into a position that enables them to spend 1million plus on frivolous art, plus they will more than likely make money on their investment in what is now more well known than most other contemporary art pieces.
So people have lots of money because they're smart?
Of course. Look at Trump.
Maybe Trump is a Banksy installation.
Would be great if he was and shredded himself
So people have lots of money because they’re smart?
Or is it because they are fannies?
Or is it because they are fannies?
Why are you asking me? And could you answer my question?
they will more than likely make money on their investment in what is now more well known than most other contemporary art pieces.
This - that pile of shredded paper is now far and away the most famous Banksy piece in existence. I'm hoping that the new owner engages with the point (which I assume is around Banksy's ongoing and not necessarily consistent attitude to "ownership" of his work). A pile of shredded Banksy that a rich collector has pissed on would be even more distinctive.
My Mother in Law also has a Rolf Harris. It is a signed Lowry-esqu street scene print. The nail that held* it to the wall is probably worth more.
Maybe when he's dead eh?
*now on display in a bin bag in the loft.
They released a video of them setting it up
Another spoof!
Why are you asking me? And could you answer my question?
In that you cannot tell if some fanny will buy similarly I don’t have the resources to look at a big enough sample of high net worth individuals who can spend 1million plus on contemporary art to conclude if they are fannies as you suggested or very smart for having gained such large sums of money(or criminals or benefiting from significant inherited wealth)
that aside, it is as I have already said now one of the most famous contemporary art pieces, Banksy is incredibly popular with broad appeal in a similar way to Warhol, most people would spot a Banksy instantly unlike a Kapoor, Taryn Simon or Kiefer for example.
A reasonably sound investment if that’s a market you can afford to dabble in.
Maybe Trump is a Banksy installation.
He’d have fitted in perfectly at the Weston-Super-Mare ‘Dismalland’ he set up several years ago.
Someone thought he’d be a smartass, and sliced his own copy of the same print with a Stanley knife, and sell it for a big profit. Sorry, jackass, your $40,000 print is now worth zip. Ha ha!
Moments after the framed Girl With Balloon was sold by Sotheby's in London, the canvas shredded itself.
Pest Control, a firm acting on behalf of the elusive artist, has titled the new piece Love is in the Bin.
Sotheby's has confirmed the final price of £1,042,000 will be paid in full by the new owner.
The European woman who bought the piece, who does not want to be named, said: "At first I was shocked, but I realised I would end up with my own piece of art history."
Moments after the hammer fell at the auction on Friday, alarms sounded and the canvas dropped through a hidden shredder built into the bottom.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-45829853
Well looks like she is going to keep a now more valuable piece of art
MrsTH was reading about a chap who saw the above, and promtly put his early banksy (not paid much for it, but now worth thousands) through his shredder.
Its now been re valued at effectively nothing, oddly.
*slow claps*
MrsTH was reading about a chap who saw the above, and promtly put his early banksy (not paid much for it, but now worth thousands) through his shredder.
For all the mocking of art and it's value, most people seem to misunderstand the concept of being first 🙂
most people seem to misunderstand the concept of being first
Exactly.
Really shredded? misdirection? Fake shredder video? So bleedin what. Originality is what counts.
At what point does a piece of art cease to be art and merely a possession / investment?
I think it’s great, the whole journey the painting has taken through to this event. It will continue to be a story in someone’s life, added adventure and provenance.
Clearly it’s worth more now than the £1m odd paid for it.
For all the controversy, the author/painter is forever embedded in the culture of both Art world and becomes another storyline in the history of Art.
At what point does a piece of art cease to be art and merely a possession / investment?
I'd say : Never. It's still art when it's a possession or investment.
"Luckily" the painting was sold at an auction before the batteries in the shredder ran out.
At what point does a piece of art cease to be art and merely a possession / investment?
When people buy works because the creator’s previous works start to increase in price, and they become an investment. I’ve been going to the RA Summer Exhibition for over 20 years, and I’ve seen various contributors work’s increasing in value by really significant amounts, and many are works that one really wouldn’t want on a wall, some are too sodding big! You’d need a warehouse wall to hang some, but they sell, and for massive amounts. Same with sculptures as well. If I buy something, it’s got to be something I really want to be able to live with and enjoy looking at.
Apparently the woman who bought the Banksey was horrified, but now accepts it as a legitimate part of the work and is keeping it.
Will Gompertz take on it, which more or less backs up my take, only much better written:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-45818204
But contemporary art is not valued for its inherent aesthetic qualities (although that is how it is presented to us), it is valued pretty much solely on the basis of an artist's reputation. All that matters is the brand, that it is a Banksy, or a Koons, or a Kusama. For a lot of collectors art has become an asset class.
Hence the talk after the event wasn't about art but the asset. Will the shredded work be worth more, or less? Surreptitious calls were made suggesting potential buyers were already lining up to purchase it, should it come back on the market. Speculation mounted.
Maybe the whole thing was an elaborate prank by Banksy.
He could have put the piece up for auction through an associate and then bought it for the staggering sum of £1m knowing full well the sale wouldn't go through because the work was about to be destroyed.
You wouldn't put that past him, would you?