A work by British street artist Banksy that sensationally self-shredded just after it sold at auction three years ago fetched almost $25.4 million on Thursday at Sotheby's in London.
A record for the artist, the shredded artwork sold close to 20 times its pre-shredded price. Titled "Love is in the Bin" was offered by Sotheby’s with a pre-sale estimate of $5.5 million to $8.2 million.
The piece consists of a half-shredded canvas in an ornate frame bearing a spray-painted image of a girl reaching for a heart-shaped red balloon. When it last sold at Sotheby’s in October 2018, the piece was known as “Girl With Balloon.”
In 2018, an anonymous European buyer was making the winning bid - for $1.4 million - when a hidden shredder embedded in the frame by Banksy whirred to life, leaving half the canvas hanging from the frame in strips.