British artist Banksy's shredded 'Love is in The Bin' artwork auctioned for $25.4 million

An artwork by anonymous British street artist Banksy that enigmatically self-shredded just after it was sold at auction three years ago, fetched roughly $25.4 million on Thursday. The piece titled “Love is in the Bin” consists of a half shredded canvas in a bejeweled frame bearing a spray-painted image of a girl reaching out for a balloon. The original article was sold exactly three years ago with the title 'Girl with Balloon'.

_{Image: Sotheby's Auction House} 

On Thursday, the half shredded piece was put under the hammer by London-based auction house Sotheby’s where it fetched almost thrice its original price. The ‘bidding war’ involved nine parties, who marked their attendance both in person and by telephone. The auction went on for 10 minutes at the end of which the painting was sold to an anonymous bidder for a whopping price of 18,582,000 UK pounds ($25,383,941). 

Sotheby's in a statement said, "It sparked a fierce wave of bids, with the iconic piece finally going under the hammer for an astonishing £18,582,000, after a ten-minute chase by nine bidders. The first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction, Love is in the Bin tripled its £6 million in very same Sotheby’s saleroom in which it was born in 2018."

The shredding episode

In 2018 an anonymous female bidder bought the famous Banksy painting at another Sotheby’s auction. However, only a few seconds after the sale was terminated, a shredder was hidden in the frame shredded half of the canvas, leaving everybody at the bidding aghast. Although the British auction house initially received some flak for its failure to spot the shredder, it soon became one of its most vaunted artworks. Later Banksy, who was present at the bidding, took to Youtube to

showing how he used a remote control to secretly activate the shredder.   

(With inputs from AP)

(Image: AP )