BANKSY’S world-renowned shredded painting, “Love is in the Bin,” has fetched US$25.4 million at a Sotheby’s auction Thursday, according to the auction house. Nine people battled for the piece for around 10 minutes before an anonymous collector, represented by Nick Buckley Wood, won the auction. The sale is a record for Banksy, beating out a piece that was sold for around US$22 million in March, with proceeds benefiting a U.K. charity. “Love is in the Bin” made history with its creation mid-auction in 2018. The original piece, an image of a girl holding a balloon that was aptly titled “Girl With Balloon,” garnered US$1.4 million at auction but the crowd was shocked when a shredder built within the frame activated as soon as the sale was complete, partly shredding the piece. It was an unforgettable moment in the art world, and the first time that a work of art had actually been created during an auction, according to Sotheby’s. Auction officials have maintained that they had no idea what Banksy had planned for the 2018 auction. They were, simply put, “Banksyed,” Oliver Barker, auctioneer and chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, said in a news release. Banksy himself confirmed as much in an Instagram post where he stated plainly that the piece really was shredded and that the auction house was not “in on it.” After Sotheby’s announced last month that “Love is in the Bin” would soon be up for sale, the piece was taken on a brief global tour before returning home to London. The auction house estimated then that it would go for US$5 million to US$8 million, a pretty substantial return for a piece of art that was purchased for only a fraction of that price. (SD-Agencies) | 