Popular street artist Banksy's shredded artwork has been raking millions of dollars at auctions, with its values surging each time the artwork goes under the hammer.
The artwork, now called "Love is in the Bin", was sold for a whopping $25.4 million dollar bid at the recent Sotheby's auction on October 14. The work, formerly called "Girl With Balloon", has an estimated selling price of $6-8 million. The original canvas sold for nearly $1.5 million at the same location in October 2018 when it dramatically passed through a shredder hidden in its frame moments after bidding ended. After the incident, its popularity surged worldwide and it became one of the artist's most celebrated artworks, garnering an extra $20 million at the 2021 auction.
The stunt, which poked fun at the staid world of fine art, is typical of the graffiti artist's irreverent style after his work began appearing on the streets of Bristol in southwest England in the 1980s.
The partially shredded canvas shows a girl child reaching up toward a heart-shaped red balloon.
Alex Branczik, Sotheby's contemporary art chairman, said Banksy's stunt at its last sale "did not so much destroy an artwork by shredding it, but instead created one". "Today, this piece is considered heir to a venerated legacy of anti-establishment art," he added, calling it "the ultimate Banksy artwork and a true icon of recent art history".
On a close second is the artwork called "Game Changer", which was sold for $23.1 million this March with the money going towards the National Health Service of the UK. The artwork, released in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, shows a child playing with a toy nurse along with other famous superheroes like Batman and Spider-man.
Among other iconic ones are "Devolved Parliament", which portrays apes in the place of lawmakers in a parliament. The work reportedly was sold for $13.7 million.
Banksy's "Love in the Air", which shows a protestor throwing a bouquet of flowers, and "Subject to Availability", on climate change, were sold for $12.9 million and $6.3 million, respectively.
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