“It’s still there. Hard to believe.” Sotheby’s auctioneer Oliver Barker sounds baffled shortly after the auction on Thursday evening. He speaks of the work of the British artist Banksy, which has already been auctioned, then shredded and now sold again. But let’s start from the beginning.
Three years ago, a European collector bought the world-famous picture for around 1.1 million pounds. “Girl with Balloon” shows a girl reaching for a heart-shaped balloon; it is reproduced many times. But no sooner had the collector’s bid been accepted than the beeping noises, the picture slid down from the frame and was shredded into strips. Banksy, whose identity is still unknown the surprising shredding campaign as a criticism of the art market and renamed the work “Love is in the Bin”.
“I can’t tell you how afraid I am to hit that hammer.”
Before the auction on Thursday evening, Sotheby’s had shredded its own flag on the facade in London. And otherwise, the advertising hype was huge beforehand. In the auction room, many of the phone displays in the audience lit up and the room became noticeably quiet. “I can’t tell you how afraid I am to hit with this hammer”, said auctioneer Barker. Laughter in the hall. And then a surcharge, for 16 million pounds, the equivalent of 18.89 million euros plus fees, to a stranger who was connected over the phone.
Experts had previously estimated a price of up to six million pounds. Such a large sum as the balloon girl has now won has never before been achieved for a work by Banksy. An oil painting by Botticelli was auctioned for 70 million euros at the beginning of the year. In addition to Banksy’s work, three abstract paintings by Gerhard Richter, Joseph Beuys, Jörg Immendorf and Georg Baselitz were auctioned on Thursday.