Advertisement

Banksy painting shredded during previous auction sells for $25.4M

A half-shredded painting by Banksy titled "Love is in the Bin" sold to an anonymous bidder for $25.4 million on Thursday. File Photo by Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA-EFE
A half-shredded painting by Banksy titled "Love is in the Bin" sold to an anonymous bidder for $25.4 million on Thursday. File Photo by Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA-EFE

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- A Banksy painting that was partially shredded at a previous auction was sold at auction for $25.4 million on Thursday.

The piece, titled Love is in the Bin, sold to an anonymous bidder following 10 minutes of bidding among nine participants at Sotheby's auction house in London.

Advertisement

The $25.4 million selling point makes it Banksy's highest-selling work, surpassing Game Changer -- a painting of a young boy shirking his Batman and Spider-Man toys to play with a cape-clad nurse action figure -- which sold for more than $23.18 million at an auction benefiting British health charities in March.

Auctioneer Oliver Barker joked that he was relieved that the artwork was "still there" after the bidding concluded.

The piece was originally placed up for sale at Sotheby's in 2018, then titled Girl with Balloon, depicting a red, heart-shaped balloon floating away from a young girl.

However, the painting "self-destructed" after it sold for $1.4 million, passing through a shredder hidden in the frame that left half of the painting in tatters.

"It appears we just got Banksy-ed," Senior Director and Head of Contemporary Art Alex Branczik said at the time.

Advertisement

Following the auction, the piece, which maintained the original work half-shredded in its frame, was granted a new certificate and date by Banksy's authentication body and given its new title.

The collector who placed the winning bid decided to keep the new work.

"That surreal evening three years ago, I became the accidental -- but very privileged -- owner of Love is in the Bin," she told Sotheby's. "It has been an incredible journey to have been part of the story of how one of the most famous artworks in the world came to be, but now it is time to let the painting go."

Prior to the auction the painting was placed on display at Sotheby's London before embarking on a tour to Hong Kong, Taipei and New York.

Latest Headlines