Author: Oscar Holland / Source: CNN Style
When a Banksy painting “self-destructed” after selling at auction for £1.04 million ($1.4 million) last week, it looked like the perfect stunt — one that caught onlookers and the art world by surprise.
But the anonymous artist has now suggested that things didn’t go quite to plan.
Mobile phone footage from the London sale shows the artwork sliding into a shredder hidden inside its frame, before coming to an abrupt stop just over halfway through and being carried away by auction officials.
However, a new video, posted on Banksy’s website Wednesday, implies that the 2006 painting “Girl with Balloon” was supposed to be entirely destroyed. It shows footage of an identical-looking artwork being shredded from top to bottom, with strips of canvas falling from the frame.
The clip is accompanied by the message, “In rehearsals it worked every time…”
Described as a “director’s cut,” the three-minute video offers further evidence of how the anonymous artist installed the shredder. The footage implies that the stunt was initiated via a handheld device, although it is unclear whether the close-up shot of a button being pressed was captured at the sale.
The video also appears to poke fun at the art industry. Scenes seemingly recorded at a pre-sale event have been edited to feature snippets of conversation like “Oh gracious!” and “more…
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