‘In rehearsals it worked every time’: Banksy suggests self-destruct stunt didn’t go as planned

When a Banksy painting “self-destructed” after selling at auction for £1.04 million ($1.4 million) last week, it looked like the perfect stunt – one that caught onlookers and the art world by surprise.

But the anonymous artist has now suggested that things didn’t go quite to plan.

Mobile phone footage from the London sale shows the artwork sliding into a shredder hidden inside its frame, before coming to an abrupt stop just over halfway through and being carried away by auction officials.

However, a new video, posted on Banksy’s website Wednesday, implies that the 2006 painting “Girl with Balloon” was supposed to be entirely destroyed. It shows footage of an identical-looking artwork being shredded from top to bottom, with strips of canvas falling from the frame.

The clip is accompanied by the message, “In rehearsals it worked every time…”

Described as a “director’s cut,” the three-minute video offers further evidence of how the anonymous artist installed the shredder. The footage implies that the stunt was initiated via a handheld device, although it is unclear whether the close-up shot of a button being pressed was captured at the sale.

The video also appears to poke fun at the art industry. Scenes seemingly recorded at a pre-sale event have been edited to feature snippets of conversation like “Oh gracious!” and “more Champagne?”

The artwork is seen being partially shredded before coming to an abrupt halt.

At one point, a man – who appears to be an auction house employee – is filmed standing beside the painting commenting on its now notorious frame.

“The artist put the frame on as well,” he is heard saying. “You get that quite often with Banksy. He quite likes the romanticism of having a very ornate, National Gallery-esque frame.”

It is unclear how – or by whom – the footage was obtained, and some sections appears to have been surreptitiously recorded. Scenes from inside the auction room have been shot from a number of different angles, fueling speculation about whether Banksy or his associates were present at the sale.

A look at some of the recent work of the famously anonymous British graffiti artist Banksy. Banksy's "Love is in the Bin" is unveiled on October 12, 2018, at Sotheby's in London. Originally titled "Girl with Balloon," the canvas passed through a hidden shredder seconds after the hammer fell on October 5 at Sotheby's London Contemporary Art Evening Sale, making it the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction.

Banksy protested the incarceration of Zehra Dogan, a Turkish artist who was imprisoned last year over a painting.

"Civilian Drone Strike," revealed in London last September, targeted one of the world's largest arms fairs.

The original version of Banksy's artwork features a red balloon. The print offered to voters in the Bristol area showed a balloon colored like a Union Jack flag.

In May, elusive street artist Banksy revealed a new mural. The large-scale painting depicts a worker chipping away at one of the twelve stars on the European Union flag.

In March, Banksy revealed a large-scale installation in Bethlehem. Titled the Walled Off Hotel, the interactive artwork features nine guest rooms and a presidential suite.

Each room critiques the division between Israel and Palestine, and the hotel looks out to a 30-foot concrete wall, which has been described as the largest canvas in the world.

In June 2016 elusive UK street artist Banksy painted this mural for students at a primary school in his hometown of Bristol, England. Students had named a house at their school for the artist, who surprised them with the mural when they returned from a holiday break. Here's a look at some other notable Banksy works.

A mural of a weeping woman, painted by the British street artist Banksy, is seen in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Wednesday, April 1. The mural was painted on a door of a house destroyed last summer during the fighting between Israel and Hamas. The owner of the house said he was tricked into selling the door for the equivalent of $175, not realizing the painting was by the famously anonymous artist.

A Palestinian child stands next to a Banksy mural of a kitten on the remains of a destroyed house in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, in February 2015.

A child in Beit Hanoun walks past a mural February 2015 that depicts children using an Israeli watchtower as a swing ride.

A Banksy mural depicting pigeons holding anti-immigration signs was destroyed by the local council in Clacton-on-Sea, England, in October 2014 after the council received complaints that the artwork was offensive.

A Banksy work appears at a youth center in Bristol, England, in April 2014. Called "Mobile Lovers," it features a couple embracing while checking their cell phones. Members of the youth center took down the piece from a wall on a Bristol street and replaced it with a note saying the work was being held at the club "to prevent vandalism or damage being done." The discovery came shortly after another image believed to be by Banksy surfaced in Cheltenham, England.

"The Banality of the Banality of Evil" actually started out as a thrift store painting in New York City. Once altered by Banksy, who inserted an image of a Nazi officer sitting on a bench, it was re-donated to the store in October 2013, according to the artist's site.

Banksy's art exhibit "Grim Reaper Bumper Car" sits on New York's Lower East Side in October 2013. The famously anonymous artist, whose paintings regularly go for six figures at auction houses around the world, said he was on a "residency on the streets of New York."

A Banksy piece covers the main entrance to Larry Flynt's Hustler Club in New York's Hell's Kitchen in October 2013.

Banksy's replica of the Great Sphinx of Giza was made in Queens out of smashed cinder blocks.

Banksy's "Ghetto 4 Life" appeared in the Bronx in October 2013. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested that Banksy was breaking the law with his guerrilla art exhibits, but the New York Police Department denied it was actively searching for him.

Banksy art is seen on the Upper West Side of New York in October 2013.

Banksy work in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, was vandalized in broad daylight in October 2013.

One of Banksy's pieces is this fiberglass sculpture of Ronald McDonald having his shoes shined in front of a Bronx McDonald's.

Graffiti depicting the Twin Towers popped up in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York in October 2013.

Banksy's "Sirens of the Lambs" art installation tours the streets of Manhattan in October 2013. It was a fake slaughterhouse delivery truck full of stuffed animals.

A Banksy mural is seen on a wall in Queens. The quote is from the movie "Gladiator." It says, "What we do in life echoes in eternity."

A woman poses with Banksy's painting of a heart-shaped balloon covered in bandages. The piece, in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, was defaced with red spray paint shortly after it was completed.

A Banksy mural of a dog urinating on a fire hydrant draws attention

This installation, seen in October 2013, on the Lower East Side of New York, depicts stampeding horses in night-vision goggles. Thought to be a commentary on the Iraq War, it also included an audio soundtrack.

Gallery assistants adjust Banksy's "Love Is in the Air" ahead of an auction in London in June 2013. The piece was sold for $248,776.

"The Crayola Shooter" is found in Los Angeles in 2011. It shows a child wielding a machine gun and using crayons for bullets.

Banksy murals popped up around New Orleans a day before the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in 2008.

A silhouette of a child holding a refrigerator-shaped kite is seen on a wall in New Orleans in 2008.

Graffiti on the side of a building in New Orleans shows an elderly person in a rocking chair under the banner, "No Loitering," in 2008.

A scene titled "Chicken Nuggets," from Banksy's "The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill," is seen in New York in 2008.

A man walks past a Banksy piece in London in 2006.

A stenciled image of two policemen kissing is seen in London in 2005.

Banksy, the elusive street artist

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Shortly after the auction, Sotheby’s announced that the painting had been renamed “Love is in the Bin.” The winning bidder has reportedly proceeded with the purchase, amid speculation that the artwork’s value may, in fact, rise as a result of its partial destruction.

Sotheby’s has previously denied involvement in – or even knowledge of – the stunt.