Three years later, Banksy’s shredded artwork returns to auction

LONDON, Sept. 3 (Reuters) – Three years after being shredded at the time of its auction, a painting of a young girl holding a red heart-shaped balloon by the elusive British artist Banksy returns under the hammer on next month with a price tag of up to $ 8 million.

Onlookers gasped after the lower half of then-“Girl with Balloon” was sucked into a shredder hidden in its frame as the hammer fell following a 1,042,000-pound bid at the time. of an October 2018 auction at Sotheby’s in London.

The buyer proceeded with the purchase and the artwork, since authenticated as a work in itself and renamed “Love is in the Bin”, is offered for sale with an estimated price of 4 million to 6 million pounds ($ 5.54 million – $ 8.31 million).

“It has grown enormously, almost four times, obviously, since that last time. But I also think that in the meantime the Banksy market has also grown exponentially,” Oliver Barker, European president of Sotheby’s.

“It is very rare to find a work of art by an artist, who is truly an icon not only of that artist, but in fact in the art world itself.”

In March, a Banksy painting of a boy playing with a toy nurse as a superhero sold for more than $ 20 million, setting an auction record for the artist. Read more

“Love is in the Bin” will be on display at Sotheby’s in London before traveling to Hong Kong, Taipei and New York and returning to the British capital for the October 14 sale.

($ 1 = 0.7224 pounds)

Reporting by Will Russell; Written by Marie-Louise Gumuchian, edited by William Maclean

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