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Banksy has revealed that his partial shredding of an artwork during a Sotheby's auction did not go to plan and that the painting was instead meant to be completely destroyed.
The artist secretly built a shredder into the frame of Girl with Balloon, which self-destructed moments after it was sold for £860,000 at the auction.
An unnamed collector bought the piece which, including a buyer's premium, cost £1m.
Banksy implied that the stunt went wrong in a new video posted to his website.
The footage shows how a button was pressed to trigger an alarm from the painting, as part of it was sliced into strips.
A stunned crowd gasped and looked on and the painting was swiftly removed.
Part of the piece remained within the frame and was not destroyed.
"In rehearsals it worked every time..." a caption in the video notes.
Viewers are then shown a clip where an artwork was completely shredded, leaving the frame wholly empty.
Banksy previously claimed that preparations for the stunt were carried out "a few years ago" in case it was ever put up for auction.
Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The artist defended the shredding with a quote from Picasso : “The urge to destroy is also a creative urge.”
Sotheby's said the artwork has been given a new title, Love is in the Bin and that it has been granted a certificate by Banksy's authentication body.
The woman who bought the piece at the auction went ahead with the purchase.
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Best of Banksy Camden Town, north London Near the Oval Bridge
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Best of Banksy 'Love is in the Bin' During Sotheby's Contemporary Art Sale on 5th October the Banksy artwork 'Girl with Balloon' shredded through the bottom of the frame as it was sold.
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Previously on view at Sotheby's New Bond Street, London
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A Banksy artwork piece on Israel's highly controversial West Bank barrier in Abu Dis
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A girl painting over a swastika cross
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Best of Banksy Rage, Flower Thrower Painted on a wall of a gas station in the West Bank city of Bethlehem
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Best of Banksy 'No Ball Games' In Tottenham, North London
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Best of Banksy 'Cash Machine Girl' In Finsbury, North London
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Best of Banksy 'Peckham Rock' Installation of Banksy's at the British Museum in London. The artist secretly placed the mock historical piece in a gallery at the museum in 2005 and it went unnoticed for three days
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Best of Banksy Barbican Centre, London One of two murals near the Barbican Centre in London
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Artwork depicting former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
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A man holding a handsaw behind his back and offering a bone to a dog which leg has been cut off
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Painting on a wall in Bethlehem in the West Bank
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Best of Banksy Camden Town, north London
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"When the hammer came down last week and the work was shredded, I was at first shocked, but gradually I began to realise that I would end up with my own piece of art history," the buyer said, according to Sotheby's.
Alex Branczik, head of contemporary art for Europe at the auction house, said the piece was "the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction".
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