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WonderArt history fact

In October 2018, seconds after Banksy's painting Girl with Balloon sold at Sotheby's in London for just over £1 million, a shredder hidden in its frame cut the lower half of the canvas into strips. The half-shredded work was renamed Love is in the Bin.

Sotheby's London, 2018

ArtTechnology

The story behind the card

The sale took place on 5 October 2018, at a final price of £1,042,000. Banksy, the anonymous British street artist, later released a video showing that he had built the shredder into the frame years earlier, and said it had shredded the whole picture in rehearsals; on the night it stopped about halfway. The buyer, a European collector, chose to keep the altered work. The stunt attacked the very room that had just priced the painting, yet the market absorbed it: in October 2021 the same work returned to Sotheby's and sold for £18,582,000, then a record for Banksy at auction. The destruction did not end the artwork; it became part of its story.

Türkçe oku
Ekim 2018'de Banksy'nin Girl with Balloon (Balonlu Kız) adlı tablosu Londra'da Sotheby's müzayedesinde 1 milyon sterlinin biraz üzerinde satıldı; saniyeler sonra çerçevesine gizlenmiş bir kâğıt öğütücü tuvalin alt yarısını şerit şerit kesti. Yarısı parçalanan eserin adı Love is in the Bin (Aşk Çöpte) oldu.
Sotheby's Londra, 2018

Satış 5 Ekim 2018'de, 1.042.000 sterlinlik son fiyatla gerçekleşti. Kimliği bilinmeyen İngiliz sokak sanatçısı Banksy, sonradan yayımladığı bir videoda kâğıt öğütücüyü yıllar önce çerçeveye yerleştirdiğini gösterdi; provalarda tablonun tamamını parçaladığını da söyledi. Satış gecesi ise mekanizma yarıda durdu. Tabloyu alan Avrupalı koleksiyoncu, değişmiş hâliyle de eseri almaktan vazgeçmedi. Gösteri, tabloya az önce fiyat biçen salonun kendisini hedef alıyordu; ama piyasa bunu da içine sindirdi: Ekim 2021'de aynı eser yeniden Sotheby's'e geldi ve 18.582.000 sterline satıldı. Bu, o güne kadar bir Banksy eserine müzayedede ödenen en yüksek fiyattı. Parçalanmak eseri bitirmedi, hikâyesinin bir parçası oldu.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Love Is in the Bin
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