Was Banksy’s Shredding of “Balloon Girl” an Inside Job?
By Angela Grummett
At a Sotheby auction in London, Banksy’s famous Balloon Girl was sold for £1.4m— and then instantly shredded by the artist himself. Not only was it shredded, but it was the frame that shredded the painting. The frame made by Banksy— a British street artist whose identity is kept a mystery— in case it was ever auctioned off. Since the incident, he’s renamed the now-shredded piece Love is in the Bin.
Banksy’s famous art can be found just about anywhere in the streets of Europe; from clocks to brick walls to the wheels of a steamroller. He rarely asks for people to pay to see his art, which plays into his reasoning for shredding the picture. And yet, many people are saying that now Balloon Girl will be doubled in its worth. So, it seems Banksy’s plan has failed— unless, he and Sotheby’s were together in this all along.
Before we can consider this possibility, though, we have to actually ask ourselves who Banksy is.
Physically, we don’t know. We know he’s from the UK, and there have been many reports of people finding him or figuring out who he is, though none have been proven. However, a breeze through his online gallery reveals a lot in the long run about his personality and motives.
For about a month in 2015, Banksy opened up his own amusement park— or “bemusement park”, as he called it— called Dismaland, a parody of Disneyland. The exhibit showcased a lot of dark humor and mocked popular amusement parks with pieces such as a killer whale jumping out of a toilet bowl into a hula hoop. It also ridiculed modern consumerism. One sign told customers that they would get a free hot dog if they could guess what animal was in it. No matter which corner of the park you visited, one thing was evident: this wasn’t Disneyland. After the park closed down, he used the building materials for each exhibit to make shelters for the homeless.
In his galleries, there are many more images reflecting a negative view on capitalism and consumerism. One such painting shows a group of women passionately praising a “Sale Ends Today” sign, and another with Jesus on the cross, Christmas boxes and bags dangling from his hands.
Most of his art reflects similar indifferences, which begs to question why, if he was in on the Sotheby’s auction, would he give up his principles now? Unless the anti-consumerist image he’s painted of himself is a lie, it doesn’t seem in-character for him to partner with an auction that’s selling his painting for £1.4 million. He himself has already denied these claims, and the woman who bought the painting took home the shredded version, happy to have her own piece of art history.
If this was inside job, which I have a hard time believing, then I’d think it wouldn’t matter, so long as the buyer was happy. After all, she got to take home the art history— but we all got to be alive to see it.
