By now, most of us have seen the video of Banksy’s famous “Girl With Balloon” artwork shred itself right after a winning bid of $1.4 Million was placed. Many people have said the artwork is worth more now that it has been shredded. It turns out, the actual artwork may not have been shredded at all.
In a video published by Banksy himself, he shows how he built the frame years ago just in case the artwork ever went up for auction. The frame would be triggered to shred the artwork after the winning bid was placed. By the looks of it, that’s what happened.
If you look closely at the video he posted of the frame, the razor blades that are supposed to shred the artwork are facing the wrong direction. They are lying flat and sideways (see below) in relation to the artwork that would travel across them to be shredded. They would need to be upright and at a 90-degree angle from what is shown in the video for the artwork to shred the way it did.
Some are calling the shredding artwork stunt a magic trick that allows the actual artwork to roll safely while the pre-shredded duplicate appears out of the bottom.