Categories: Art

Banksy Completely Shreds ‘Girl With Balloon’ In Director’s Cut Video

"In rehearsals, it worked every time..."

People still couldn’t stop talking about the controversial destruction of the Banksy painting Girl With Balloon at a recent Sotheby’s auction. However, it looked like the artwork somehow survived since only half of it was shredded at the event. Interestingly, the artist has revealed a new copy of the painting being completely destroyed by the frame in his own director’s cut.

Banksy released a new video offering a behind-the-scenes look at how he rigged the frame. The video entitled Shred The Love – The Director’s Cut shows how the artist created the shredder and incorporated it into the artwork. He also claimed that the shredding worked perfectly during rehearsals.

The controversial painting before its destruction.

Source: Sotheby's

The artist announced the release of Director’s Cut on his official Instagram page. Banksy also made it clear that the painting’s destruction was supposed to be complete. In addition to that, he confirmed that Sotheby’s had no idea about what would happen to the artwork.

“Some people think it didn’t really shred. It did. Some people think the auction house were [sic] in on it, they weren’t,” he wrote.

It is unclear why the frame only shredded the painting halfway. Nevertheless, the value of Girl With Balloon has increased since the incident.

Just moments before the artwork began to selfdestruct.

Source: banksyfilm/YouTube

In October 2018, Girl With Balloon was auctioned for $1.4 million as the last lot of Sotheby’s “Frieze Week” evening contemporary art sale. As soon as it was announced sold, the spray paint on canvas began slipping from its frame in shreds. Although the process stopped halfway, it left spectators in complete shock.

Sotheby’s head of contemporary art in Europe Alex Branczik said in a statement, “We’ve been Banksy-ed.” The auction house also admitted that “we have not experienced this situation in the past.”

Sotheby’s has not yet revealed what will be done with the ruined painting. In the meantime, we can expect more crazy stunts from Banksy himself.