Radicalizing Art Auctions

by 2019-485 on January 31, 2019 7:21 pm

Banksy is not your standard artist: Banksy is an enigma. Banksy is an infamous street artist based in England that makes provocative, political, and satirical pieces while remaining anonymous. His artwork has been discovered on walls, bridges, and streets all across the world. So, how does this radical artist relate to MS&E 135? Simply, Banksy shocked the world of art auctions at the Sotheby’s auction on October 6, 2018.

Sotheby’s was created in 1744 and continues to be an established art broker and the fourth oldest auction house in history. In 2011 alone, Sotheby’s pulled in $5.8B through its art auction practices. It has expanded from the United Kingdom to New York, Hong Kong, India, France, and China. In October 2018, Sotheby’s auctioned off Banksy’s famous piece Girl with Balloon, in a traditional English auction, for $1.4M.

Girl with Balloon

Not too long after the auctioneer hit the gavel, the picture began to shred itself. Banksy had, very sneakily, hid a shredder inside of the art frame and by the click of a remote control, the multi-million dollar piece of art began to shred immediately to the shock, horror, and, potentially, delight of the whole audience and Sotheby’s staff. Quickly everyone in the auction room pulled out their phones and filmed history in the making, see the video below. This provided a stark contrast to Sotheby’s reputation as a high-end auction house; Sotheby’s represents the posh and traditional aspects of the auction process, and Banksy decided to shake things up. As Alex Branczik, the Sotheby’s senior director, stated the auction process and Sotheby’s itself was “Banksy-ed”.

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. "The urge to destroy is also a creative urge" – Picasso

A post shared by Banksy (@banksy) on Oct 6, 2018 at 10:09am PDT

Soon after, Banksy posted a how to video and claimed the shredding incident as a long-awaited prank to surprise the art world. The prank exploded on the internet as people were shocked and had never seen anything like this take place in an auction house, especially a Sotheby’s auction. The art was originally named Girl with Balloon, but after it was shred the artist announced that its new name was Love is in the Bin as it was now a new piece of art. Many of the art experts estimated that this stunt increased its value by at least 50%. This even lead to some owners shredding their purchased Banksy work, but unfortunately did not increase the value of their own pieces, read more here. Banksy was the first person to create a piece of work at an art auction. He turned the role of the art auction on its head and instead of simply selling his art, he created a new piece entirely and increased its value. Banksy is always shaping and criticizing the art world as he has claimed “For the sake of keeping all street art where it belongs, I’d encourage people not to buy anything by anybody, unless it was created for sale in the first place” and even titled one of his prints as “I can’t believe you morons actually buy this s—-.” Banksy used this prank, which came to be praised as a theater performance, as another example of proving that his art, and all art, should not be privately held, but shared by the public. The role of art auctions will remain forever changed.

Image result for love is in the bin Love is in the Bin