BANKSY EXHIBITIONS AND PRANKS // LOVE IS IN THE BIN, 2018

  • Image of Banksy's girl with a balloon being shredded
    Banksy, Love Is In The Bin, 2018.
    Created during Sotheby’s auction, London, 5 October 2018, when Girl with Balloon partially shredded itself in its frame.
    © Banksy.
    On 5 October 2018, one of Banksy’s most iconic works, Girl with Balloon, shocked the art world when it appeared at Sotheby’s London. The painting, mounted in a deep ornate frame designed by the artist, sold for £1,042,000. Moments after the gavel fell, an alarm sounded and the canvas began passing through a shredder hidden inside the frame, slicing the lower half of the image into strips before stopping abruptly.
     
    The stunt made international headlines and was quickly hailed as “the biggest prank in art history.” Banksy later released a video revealing how the frame had been secretly fitted with a shredder years earlier, in case the piece was ever auctioned. Quoting Picasso’s remark, “The urge to destroy is also a creative urge,” Banksy suggested the intent had been to fully shred the work, noting in his video, “In rehearsals it worked every time.” Instead, the half-destroyed image took on a new identity. Authenticated by Pest Control and retitled Love Is In The Bin, it became the first artwork ever created during a live auction.
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  • “In rehearsals, it worked every time.”

    – Banksy

    A concealed mechanism inside the frame partially shredded the canvas in front of a stunned audience, instantly transforming the piece into a new creation: Love Is In The Bin.
     
    The incident was not only a dramatic intervention but also a moment that exposed the contradictions of the art market. What might have been viewed as destruction instead increased the work’s value and fame, turning it into a symbol of how rebellion can be absorbed by the very systems it critiques. The event blurred the line between protest, performance, and commodity, making it one of the defining cultural moments of the 21st-century art world.
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      ORIGINAL WORKS

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