Banksy’s painting Girl With Balloon is one of the best-known works of Banksy. The painting (made with spray and acrylic paint) is a reproduction of the original image that was painted on a building in East London back in 2002. According to the website MyArtBroker.com, which resells Banksy artwork, the worth of the re-painted and framed version of Girl with Baloon grew by 20% each year. Finally, this Friday, the painting was sold for a staggering amount of a little bit more than 1 million dollars.

Moments later after the Girl With Balloon was pronounced as sold, a shredder that was hidden inside the frame of the artwork started destroying the painting into little pieces. According to some sources, the shredding mechanism was triggered by a remote control.

Later Banksy himself posted an image on Instagram with the crowd of the auction in shock and with the caption below “Going, going, gone…” The following day on the same instagram account, he posted a video in which installation of the secret shredder was filmed. The short film opened with the caption: “A few years ago, I secretly built a shredder into a painting.” The video shows how someone is putting the finishing touches upon the painting frame and later on the text appears: “In case it was ever put up for auction.”

Accoring to Joey Syer, a co-founder of the website MyArtBroker.com, “The auction result will only propel this further and given the media attention this stunt has received, the lucky buyer would see a great return on the £1.02m they paid last night. This is now part of art history in its shredded state and we’d estimate Banksy has added at a minimum 50% to its value, possibly as high as being worth £2m plus.”

As Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s (one of the largests brokers of art, real estate and collectibles) senior director of contemporary art commented, “It appears we just got Banksy-ed.”

More info: Banksy

One of the most famous works of Banksy – a world renowned artist – is a Girl With Balloon which originally appeared in East London in 2002

Image credits: Dominic Robinson

The image was re-painted and framed. Consequently, its worth started growing by 20% each year

Image credits: mrlunin

This Friday, Girl With Balloon was sold in the auction in London for $1.1 million

Image credits: thefreddyshow

However, the real surprise came about moments after the painting was pronounced sold

Image credits: Banksy

Shortly after the hammer came down, the painting started shredding itself

Image credits: Banksy

According to some sources, the shredding mechanism was triggered by a remote control. “It appears we just got Banksy-ed”, says one representative of the auction

Image credits: Banksy

The incident quickly made its way to the press and the worth of the shredded painting actually went up to $2 million

Image credits: Banksy

Below, see the video that Banksy uploaded himself in which you can see the preparation few years prior to the auction

Image credits: Banksy

The “shredding incident” caused a lively discussion among people

The internet was quick to react and some artists even took time to depict the incident creatively

Image credits: haxneul

Image credits: vittibenatti

Image credits: maltesecreative

Image credits: argo_concepts

Image credits: argo_concepts

Image credits: argo_concepts

Image credits: mehmetgeren.design

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Even some brands used Banksy as an inspiration to promote their products

Image credits: ikeanorge

Image credits: Perrier

Image credits: MazuResortwear

Image credits: Lemonade_Inc

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