Banksy’s Shredded Artwork Is Back Up For Auction, Could Sell For 6X The Price
Video screenshot via Banksy
Although Banksy had built a name for himself in his decades of anonymity, it was that heart-stopping shredding stunt that launched the artist into the mainstream. Naturally, the Love is in the Bin masterpiece is expected to be worth more by its next sale, despite the fact that the painting is no longer in one piece.
In October 2018, Banksy’s already synonymous Girl with a Balloon (2006) began self-destructing right after it was sold for £860,000 (£1.04 million or US$1.4 million with fees, at the time) by Sotheby’s London, in front of a live audience. The shredded version was legally identified as a different artwork altogether, bearing the title Love is in the Bin (2018), and became “the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction.”
While the stunt might still feel fresh in the mind, Love is in the Bin is set to go under the hammer at Sotheby’s London once again. The sale will take place on October 14, 2021, a little more than three years after that mark in art history.
Described by the auction house as “spray paint and acrylic on canvas mounted on board, framed by the artist with remotely controlled shredding mechanism hidden in the frame,” the shredded masterpiece has an estimated price of £4 million to £6 million (US$5.5 million to US$8.3 million before fees).
Currently, the painting is on permanent loan to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, which has held the work since March 2019.
Even though the artwork is shredded, Sotheby’s has maintained that Love is in the Bin isn’t a damaged piece. “It is a different work to the one that appeared in the catalog, but nonetheless it is an intentional work of art, not a destroyed painting,” a spokesperson said back in 2018.
Alex Branzcik, Head of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Europe, described that “the work was not completed until nine-something PM… This is the [artwork] that Banksy intended, it was designed to be like this.”
Ahead of its sale at the forthcoming Contemporary Art Evening Auction, the artwork will be displayed at the auctioneer’s New Bond Street Galleries, before making its rounds at Hong Kong, Taipei, and New York for show. Its last stop will be back in London, where the auction will be conducted.
The previous buyer of Love is in the Bin, an unnamed female European art collector, is quoted to have been “shocked” by the stunt at first—having just won the bid for the art—“but gradually realized that I would end up with my own piece of art history.”
[via The Art Newspaper, images via various sources]
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