Taking the art world by storm is the news of Banksy’s Girl with Balloon self-destructing live during a Sotheby’s auction! The happening occurred at the Contemporary Art Evening Auction on October 5, 2018. After the hammer fell, an alarm suddenly rang out and then the painting was drawn through the bottom of the Banksy-made frame and shredded.
Sotheby’s has proclaimed the event the first time that a piece of live performance art has been sold at auction.
The name of the piece has since been changed to “Love is in the Bin.” The buyer of the Banksy piece, who is a female European collector and a long-standing client of Sotheby’s, has decided to proceed with the purchase at the same price as was achieved during the auction, nearly $1.4 Million.
The buyer commented: “When the hammer came down last week and the work was shredded, I was at first shocked, but gradually I began to realize that I would end up with my own piece of art history.”