Having the last Laugh

[mercalia]

Good on you Banksy!
Posting a picture of the moment on Instagram, Banksy wrote: "Going, going, gone..."
The article doesnt make clear whether the "sale" went through, since it only self destructed after the auction was over.
Now a better idea would have been to put in a delay of say a few days, wait until the buyer got it home ........

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-45770028

[661-Pete]

Well, it looks, from video footage, as if the 'shredder' jammed half way through the job, so the top half - with balloon - is still intact. Buyer to do a deal and go ahead with the purchase for £500,000 perhaps?

On the other hand, the lower half is probably worth more now in its shredded state, than it was before. Nothing like a bit of front-page publicity to hike up the price...

Well done Banksy!

[Cugel]

Is the Banks lad now a fully-fledged member of the art-market establishment? I feel he is.

It's an old, old theme - how the rebels and critics of the status quo are soon sucked in to it's "market" where they parody their former selves for a large fee or ten.

We live now in a monoculture "where everyone knows the price of everything and the value of nothing". The only value remaining is cash value. (Well, maybe fame too, which is generally traded in for cash at the earliest opportunity).

Banksy by name and banksy by nature, it seems!

Cugel, feeling cynical.

[Graham]

Does anyone else get the feeling that this "shredding event" was a completely staged piece of theatre, with the main participants fully aware ?

[mercalia]

Does anyone else get the feeling that this "shredding event" was a completely staged piece of theatre, with the main participants fully aware ?

I was wondering how the device was activated? wireless control? or Alexa/Cortana special word. Or maybe the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU? So I wonder the same. Certainly it needs to be explained or Banksy will lose his street cred and thats him done?

[661-Pete]

We are a suspicious, conspiracy-theorising lot, aren't we?!

My guess is, Banksy himself wasn't in the room, but maybe he had an accomplice in there (how difficult is it to get into a Sotheby's auction incognito? Not my scene ). And presumably the shredder was set off by remote signal. Either by Banksy himself (on the phone), or by his stooge.

I think I mentioned recently, that we saw a Banksy on display at the Royal Academy summer exhibition, priced at some £350M. Surely an "up-yours" sort of gesture by the mighty B!

Banksy wins again! No street-cred lost whatever. I reckon he cares not a jot for the money.

[661-Pete]

Another thought: I wonder if the device was designed to trigger on the sound of a gavel being struck? A bit of Fourier analysis, plus software with a few well-chosen parameters - might just do it.

Do they use a gavel at Sotheby's?

[iandriver]

I suspect, with its new found fame, that it's just doubled in value (value being highly subjective of course).

[mercalia]

seems like he posted his own video but deleted it soon after but not before the BBC copied it

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-45770028

[Bonefishblues]

I suspect, with its new found fame, that it's just doubled in value (value being highly subjective of course).

This. Whoever he is, he's a genius.

[mercalia]

it seems the shredder was put in the frame years ago lying dormant for the right moment. got to hand it to the guy. Just imagine the consternation had it been the Mona Lisa

[661-Pete]

it seems the shredder was put in the frame years ago lying dormant for the right moment. got to hand it to the guy. Just imagine the consternation had it been the Mona Lisa

Ah...!! But, which Mona Lisa?

[mercalia]

and the Guardians intpretation. Includes a snippet video of the shredder being installed

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/oct/08/why-shredder-is-banksy-greatest-work?utm_term=R3VhcmRpYW4gVG9kYXkgVUstMTgxMDA5&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK&CMP=GTUK_email

The big mistake Bansky made was not to use paint that faded very quickly to leave a blank canvass?

[cyclemad]

He / She really is a proper cock.

He claims to be an artist of the people...Then why doesn't he sell his pics and donate money to a charity to help ''the people'' ?

[Bonefishblues]

I don't call people names until I've done a modicum of research (and even then I don't call them names, but might question the wisdom of their actions, perhaps)

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=banks ... ve&ssui=on