Until, that is, I got a call from my trusty inside source Deep Pockets, who summoned me to meet him at a bar directly from Heathrow, where I was returning from an artist’s talk I’d given the night before in Cologne. It was his daring joust to assert a last bit of control over that process that has resulted in everybody basically agreeing that anything the man does is a work of art.After last week’s welter of breathless reportage surrounding Banksy’s surprise pantsing of the art market at Sotheby’s London, I had made it a pre-New Year’s resolution never to mention the painting-shredding stunt again. It gives us an extra dollop of Banksy-ish irony that he's still figuring out ways to get on the wrong side of the law, even in big $1.4-million art trades over which he really doesn't have much control. Verell for pointing out that Banksy began his illustrious career being chased by the cops as he tagged buildings and bridges with his singular stencil-style in his early career in Bristol and environs. It's a bit sad for London's hard-working paparazzi that they won't get a shot at Banksy's perp walk as he would theoretically be sprung from police custody if he were to be arrested, but they'll just have to live with that disappointment.īut, good for Ms.
And, since no soul in his right mind would prosecute such a fine, ironic artist at work on a great work-in-progress, then fine. Okay, it was a technicality, and if the owner was happy, and Sotheby's saw no wrongdoing to its coffers or its own legal sanctity, in fact, Sotheby's now defines the work and by extension the act of shredding it as a "newly completed" work of art. It has taken three months for the effects of all this to sift out, but in late December, a solicitor and lecturer at London's University of Law, Salomé Verrell, posited that Banksy had in fact violated the Criminal Damage Act of 1971, since the ownership of the painting had in fact been legally transferred in the moment that the gavel came down. Banksy is not known for his compliments, but as far as it goes, this authentication was a compliment to his new patron and her largess of artistic vision. It was an embracing, and embraceable trick that even the auctioneers wryly took to heart.ĭespite the great gobs of Banksy-ish devilment and irony in the elaborate, remote-controlled shredding action, Banksy himself seems to have slightly emerged from his hidey-hole on the matter, confirming the new owner's position by affirming his authorship of the work and its shredding with a new title, 'Love is in the Bin,' on the Pest Control website, the authenticating body for Banksy's work. With it, he sent up the auction process, and the topping-of-the-top insane prices that many artists bring. Of the many high-end art world hijinks in the last year, certainly Banksy's trick of remote-control shreddng of his own 'Girl with Balloon' at Sotheby's in London last October as the gavel came down on the $1.4-million painting took top honors as best-and-most-political defacement ever. (Photo credit: BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images) Getty The modified version has now been certified by Banksy's authentication body Pest Control as a new piece of work in its own right, entitled 'Love is in the Bin'. The painting 'Girl with Balloon' was passed through a shredder hidden in the frame just after it went under the hammer for £1,042,000 ($1.4 million, 1.2 million euros). a work created when the painting 'Girl with Balloon' was passed through a shredder in a surprise intervention by the artist, at Sotheby's auction house in London in October. Sotheby's employees with the "newly completed" work by artist Banksy entitled 'Love is in the Bin'.