Just a quick mention, I am sure most have seen the shredded Banksy "Girl With Ballon" being shredded after selling this past Satruday for $1.4 million. It was actually so well publized I had decided not to post on it until I started seeing follow-up articles on the increase in values being reported. As appraisers, this type of unique publicity and interest should be examined by appraisers of fine art and analyzed properly, such as what type of premium or multiple and perhaps, how long might it last, or will the premium decrease somewhat over time. There are a lot of great appraiser discussion points on this sale and the potential impact on value.
The UK's Independent newspaper had an article stating " Banksy artwork 'doubles in value' after being shredded in front of stunned buyers at Sotheby's auction. click HERE to read that article.
The insider reports on the sale and the potential increase in value.
Source: Insider
- Banksy's "Girl With Balloon" shredded itself after being sold at auction Saturday for $1.4 million.
- Some experts speculate it may be even more valuable now that it's been destroyed.
- Others suspect the self-destruction was a stunt pulled with the participation of Sotheby's, the auction house.
- A representative for Sotheby's told INSIDER it didn't know anything about the shredder. Banksy's studio told the auction house not to remove the painting from the frame, where the shredder was hidden.
On Saturday, Banksy's painting "Girl With Balloon" sold for $1.4 million at a Sotheby's auction, a record for the artist.
Then it slid into a shredder hidden in its frame and came out on the other side in tatters.
Now, it might be even more expensive.
"You could argue that the work is now more valuable," Alex Branczik, Sotheby's head of contemporary art in Europe, told The Art Newspaper. "It's certainly the first piece to be spontaneously shredded as an auction ends."
Banksy is a performance artist and street artist, known for using his work as a platform for slyly political and biting commentary. He's pulled stunts where he's sold art anonymously, then revealed himself as the artist, causing the value of those pieces to spike in the secondhand market.
Something similar may have just happened with "Girl With Balloon." Kevie Yang, a senior specialist at the auction house Phillips, told INSIDER that the painting is now unique in the annals of art history, and that the value of it will definitely change.
"This is a very special case, because nothing like this has ever happened in auction history," she said. "Everyone's talking about it. … There are a lot of people saying that the value of the work has already increased because of the incident."
Banksy's original works are seldom sold, since many of them are works of street art or performance art. The artist positions himself as a critic of consumer culture. He posted a video on Instagram saying he hid a shredder in the frame to destroy it in case it was ever sold at auction.
Did Sotheby's know about the shredder?
Several experts have speculated that Sotheby's may have been in on the stunt.
The banker auctioning off the painting was visibly unfazed, and sold the painting at the end of the lot, when it wouldn't distract from the other works being sold.
Furthermore, auction houses prepare detailed condition reports for potential buyers, and specialists told the Financial Times it would be difficult to imagine experts preparing those reports would miss a shredder in the frame. And because it was shredded neatly, it can potentially be repaired.
"The shredder in the frame — I don't know how well it was hidden. If you just look at the painting, look at the back, they would see something different," Yang told INSIDER.
Rosamund Chester, a press representative for Sotheby's, denied the auction house knew anything about the shredder. She told INSIDER that Banksy requested not to remove the painting from the frame, and Sotheby's agreed to his wishes.
"It is increasingly common in the contemporary art world for artists to deem their frames integral to the artwork, as was the case in this instance," Chester said. "The certificate from the artist's studio for the present work states that the frame is 'integral to the piece.' When Sotheby's asked the studio about removing the work from its frame during the cataloging process, we were expressly told not to remove the frame."
Chester said removing the frame would be tantamount to destroying the artwork.
"This is not unusual - consider Lucio Fontana's lacquer frames, or George Condo's frames that include labels on the back saying do not remove from frame," she said. "In many cases, if you remove the frame you violate the artist's wishes and destroy the artwork."
Chester declined to identify the consignor of the painting. In art auctions, the consignor is either the owner of the artwork who brings it to auction, or a proxy for the owner. Consignors sometimes make independent evaluations of paintings before selling them.
The person who purchased the painting has also remained anonymous. Since "Girl With Balloon" was shredded into ribbons, it's not clear if they'll want to keep it — though its shredding may have actually been the point of the work.
"We have talked with the successful purchaser, who was surprised by the story. We are in discussion about next steps," Chester said.
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment