Status: 10/14/2021 9:42 pm
Banksy’s most famous painting was auctioned three years ago, and shortly afterwards it self-shredded. Banksy spoke of criticism of the art market. Nonetheless, the work now went to a new owner for 13 times that amount.
A good three years after its partial destruction, the half-shredded Banksy work “Love is in the Bin” was auctioned for 16 million pounds in London. Sotheby’s gives the total price including fees at 18.5 million pounds – thus the work brought in more at auction than any other work by the artist.
Shredded from the gold frame
The picture was auctioned in October 2018 – at the time under the title “Girl with Balloon” – for 1.2 million pounds by a European collector. Shortly afterwards, one of the artist’s most spectacular actions took place: After the auction, there were beeping noises and the picture rushed down through the thick, ornate gold frame. A shredder hidden there cut the lower part of the picture into strips.
Banksy called the action a criticism of the art market and renamed the work to “Love is in the Bin”, translated: Love is in the bucket. Regardless of the criticism Banksy wanted to express, the value of the work increased again – now to a good 13 times the original auction price.
New owner unknown
The world-famous picture shows a girl who is reaching for a heart-shaped balloon that has blown away – or she has just let go of it. The interpretations diverge here. The motif first appeared on a wall in London in 2002, since then it has appeared in several versions on walls around the world and has been reproduced countless times as a print.
After the shredding campaign in October 2018, the Daily Telegraph headlined: “What could be worth more than a Banksy? A shredded Banksy!” The newspaper was right. The picture also fetched significantly more than the estimated price of up to six million pounds. It was not initially announced who the new owner of the plant is.