Man Decides To Shred His $52,000 Banksy Piece To Increase Value, But Plan Backfired

In case you haven’t already heard, an expensive piece of artwork that had just been sold for over $1 million began to self-destruct that minute the auction ended. Later, we would find out that the paintings artist Banksy was the one behind the stunt. The paining is now believed to be worth more since it was shredded, leading another owner of an original Banksy to shred their own print. But unfortunately, the plan backfired.

  • Shred. Earlier this week, Banksy pulled a prank on virtually the entire world by installing a paper shredder inside the frame of a piece of his that had gone to auction. The minute the piece was sold, it began to self-destruct.
  • Idea. Of course, this led people to freak out, but soon enough it was discovered that the piece may actually be worth much more now that it’s been destroyed. This seemed to spark an idea in another art collector’s mind, who decided to shred their own Banksy print.
  • Worthless. According to LadBible, the collector then tried to sell the destroyed piece on MyArtBroker.com, only to be told that the print that was once worth over $50,000 is now essentially worthless.
  • Mistake. It is believed that the art collector used a Stanley knife to slice the print, then hoped to get double the amount that they’d paid for. But soon after, they’d learn what a terrible mistake they made.
  • Unique. “Banksy is unique to the art world. No other artist captures the hearts and minds of the public like he does. However, when Banksy does something crazy like shredding his own artwork, it will naturally have a dramatic affect on values,” said MyArtBroker.com co-founder Ian Syer.
  • Value. But in this case, destroying the piece of art did not increase it in value. Instead, the piece is said to be worth less than $2 now. Syer has insisted that people don’t try to do the same thing with their own pieces of Banksy art.
  • Shame. “We strongly recommend nobody else takes valuable art and tries to cash in on what history will judge a simply brilliant stunt. There are limited numbers of Girl With Balloon prints in the world, today, we lost one and it’s a crying shame,” continued Syer.
  • Stunt. It is still not known whether or not the person who purchased the print will still have to shell out the money they paid for it. Many people believe that Sotheby’s, the auction house where the incident happened, was in on the stunt, but they maintain they were not.
  • Genius. “We’ve just been Banksy’ed. He is arguably the greatest British street artist, and tonight we saw a little piece of Banksy genius,” a spokesperson for Sotheby’s said.
  • Next steps. Because this has never happened before, experts are now trying to figure what steps to take next. Talk about being Banksy’ed indeed.
  • Context. “We have not experienced this situation in the past where a painting spontaneously shredded, upon achieving a record for the artist. We are busily figuring out what this means in an auction context,” said the spokesperson.
  • Shredder. Meanwhile, it’s safe to say that Banksy himself is enjoying all of the commotion he’s caused. The mysterious graffiti artist took to Instagram to share a video of him putting the paper shredder inside the frame many years ago.
  • Gone. The artist also posted a video of the incident with the caption “Going, going, gone…” Some believe that Banksy was there and had been the one to push the self-destruct button once it was sold.
  • Mystery. The artist is known for keeping his identity a secret, and oftentimes does his work throughout the night. Some have speculated about who he is, but it has never been confirmed.
  • History. Meanwhile, the website MyArtBroker.com continues to plead people to stop shredding their art. “Please, Please DON’T. The events of the last 24 hrs are a very unique piece of art history,” they wrote.