Banksy Artwork Shreds Itself v2.0.

NB: Before anyone jumps and says there’s already a Thread started on that topic, the fact is that it has been shuttered up due to the Forum "Best Before" rule.

Another part of this bizarre story of “art” took place this week when the piece, now with a name change from “Girl with the Balloon” to “Love is in the Bin”, had a high estimate of £6 million ($8.3 million US), six times its previous value of £1 million ($1.4 million) prior to the Auction. The artwork remained half-shredded in its frame, which concealed a mechanism to auto-destroy it after the hammer dropped at its original sale.

As a reminder of what it looks like:


Banksy's "Love is in the Bin" is installed at Sotheby's on 03 September 2021 in London,
England. The artwork, which famously shredded itself at an auction three years ago, sold
again on Thursday 14 September 2021.
Image: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images.

However on Thursday 03 September 2021, it was sold yet again for a staggering… gulp… for a staggering £18.5 million ($25.4 million US)!!!

The new auction for "Love is in the Bin" took place at Sotheby's Contemporary Art evening sale in London on and became the artist's personal record, topping the sale of "Game Changer" one year ago. That artwork, which depicted health care workers as superheroes, sold for £16.7 million ($23.1 million) to benefit UK hospitals.

I'm not sure what's crazier: money or people.

Coming to a yard sale near you? Keep your eyes open.

 

Watched a documentary a couple of weeks ago called The Lost Leonardo, and the film made a point that a lot of the ridiculous valuations for artwork is that these works are being used basically for money laundering, that they are an easy, portable way of transferring huge amounts of money from one country to another.

 

The world of Art is just one of “business ventures” available to the unscrupulous, where money laundering occurs on a regular basis.

It would be interesting but pretty difficult, and probably impossible, to track the history of this practice, as to when the very first case in Art occurred, where all elements of W5 can be documented and accounted for.

 

An artist creating conceptual art destroying it; how novel

 

The Moment - Girl With Balloon.

It was his “method of destruction” that made it truly unique, right before your very eyes.