Banksy. The Big Bankman. Bankers Away. Good Ole’ Painty McGoo. The whole-assed spray boy. Sir Paintingsworth Banks himself. No matter how you look at it, there’s absolutely no doubt: He’s bloody gone and done it again. The boy has done it. No question. No query. No conjecture. It’s there in plain eyesight. The Bankman striketh.
[jwplayer uKHdCVMB]
The Big Elusive Art Lad pulled one over everyone’s eyes not long ago, selling off one of his more iconic works at auction before activating a hidden mechanism that partially shredded the work mere seconds after the auctioneers hammer came down; right after the already-wealthy artist got just-a-little-bit-more wealthy. Fucking got them a beaut.
But how! How did he achieve such trickery! Was the shredder simply hidden in the frame for years prior? Did auction house Sotheby’s simply not realise what was going on? Did nobody think to check the absurdly thick and suspiciously gaudy frame that held this totally unique work of art that someone bought for AUD$1.7million despite the fact it originated as a stencil on a bridge in 2004 and has been replicated in various public places countless times rendering this weird print of it truly no more valuable than a postcard in a souvenir shop?
Banksy, the Bankle Breaker himself, has finally released his “director’s cut” of the whole stunt, which not only shows the construction of the frame itself, but proves once and for all that the mechanism actually did get stuck on the day, and was originally supposed to shred the whole dang thing.
But all is not lost for the poor sod who has $1.7 million lying around to spend on a piece of art: Banksy himself has already authenticated the half-mangled work and it now exists as its own entirely new piece called Love Is In The Bin which, owing to all this hullabaloo, probably means it’s worth way, way more now.
I tell ya, he gone and done it. The Banksia Bush has bloody done it again.
