Apparently unfazed by the self-destruction of a Banksy painting she had paid over $1 million to buy at a Sotheby’s auction, the winning bidder has said she she will nonetheless go ahead with the purchase.
The auction house also said the artwork had been authenticated by the auction house and retitled "Love is in the Bin."
Although shocked by the sight of the painting being shredded, its buyer, identified only as a female European collector and long-standing client of
Sotheby's, later said she now owned her own piece of art history.
Several experts suggested that the shredded artwork could now be worth more than the original.
READ MORE: Maybe-Banksy or His 'Little Helper' Caught on Video at Auction During Prank
In a trademark bit of anti-capitalist pranking, the street artist Banksy apparently destroyed his iconic “Girl with Balloon” painting when it shredded itself into ribbons immediately after being auctioned at Sotheby's last Thursday.
According to the Financial Times, the framed work that Sotheby’s acquired in 2006, "was shredded by a mechanism apparently hidden within the base of the frame, with most of the work emerging from the bottom in strips."
