Banksy, eh? What a prankster that guy is. First he puts up for sale one of his most famous pieces of work, sells it for over £1 million and then destroys it - hilarious, right? Well, maybe not for the person who paid all that dosh for it.
The piece, a print of Banksy's 'Girl With Balloon', was being auctioned off at Sotheby's auction house in London and was sold for an eye-watering £1.1m - only to be shredded through the bottom of its frame.
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This was no accident; Banksy had it all planned. In fact, it appears that this plan was years in the making, as the reclusive street artist explained in a now-deleted Instagram post.
Along with a behind the scene video of the famous painting's frame being tampered with, he posted: "A few years ago I secretly built a shredder into a painting in case it was ever put up for auction." The sneaky devil.
However, the buyer of the significant piece shouldn't be too devastated - it turns out the painting they paid over £1m for could now be worth over £2m due to its inevitable infamy off the back of the scheme.
Joey Syer, the co-founder of MyArtBroker, told the Daily Mail: "The auction result will only propel this further and given the media attention this stunt has received, the lucky buyer would see a great return on the £1.04m they paid last night.
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"This is now part of art history in its shredded state and we'd estimate Banksy has added at a minimum 50 percent increase to its value, possibly as high as being worth £2m plus ($2.6m)."
So, despite the initial devastation the buyer must have felt it turned out to be a damn good investment - imagine that, you didn't just get a Banksy piece, but you got a Banksy piece pranked by the artist himself.
Alex Branczik, the head of contemporary art at Sotheby's said: "It appears we just got Banksy-ed.
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"He is arguably the greatest British street artist, and tonight we saw a little piece of Banksy genius."
He did, however, insist Sotheby's were in the dark about the stunt and not informed beforehand.
He added: "The shredding is now part of the integral art work. We have not experienced a situation where a painting has spontaneously shredded, upon achieving a record for the artist."
It'll be interesting to see what Banksy has in store next...
Featured Image Credit: Banksy