The Shredded Banksy – A Million-Dollar Coup. Transformation and Dynamics of Values in the Art Market. Art Talk at Art Cologne 2021 with Ulrich Blanché, University of Heidelberg, street art expert; and Bastienne Leuthe, Sotheby’s Germany. Host: Kathrin Luz. (in German language, English translation available via YouTube player settings).

Art Talk at Art Cologne 2021. Cologne (Germany), November 21, 2021.

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Info about the artwork via Wikipedia (23 November 2021, at 23:18 (UTC)(excerpt)): “In October 2018, one of Banksy’s works, Balloon Girl, was sold in an auction at Sotheby’s in London for £1.04m. However, shortly after the gavel dropped and it was sold, an alarm sounded inside of the picture frame and the canvas passed through a shredder hidden within the frame, partially shredding the picture. Banksy then posted an image of the shredding on Instagram captioned “Going, going, gone…”. After the sale, the auction house acknowledged that the self-destruction of the work was a prank by the artist. The prank received wide news coverage around the world, with one newspaper stating that it was “quite possibly the biggest prank in art history.” … To explain his rationale for destroying his own artwork, Banksy quoted Picasso: “The urge to destroy is also a creative urge”. … The woman who won the bidding at the auction decided to go through with the purchase. The partially shredded work has been given a new title, Love is in the Bin, and it was authenticated by Banksy’s authentication body Pest Control. Sotheby released a statement that said “Banksy didn’t destroy an artwork in the auction, he created one,” and called it “the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction.” On 14 October 2021, the half-shredded painting was reported to have been sold for $25.4 million.”