Kicker - One man’s trash

AUDIO: [STREET SOUNDS AND THEN CHATTER INSIDE]

NICK EICHER, HOST: “Girl with Balloon” is – or was – or sort of still is a painting by the internationally infamous and, anonymous, artist known as “Banksy.”

He’s made a name for himself by spray painting images in public places. His original “Girl with Balloon” graces the walls of an East London building.

AUDIO: Item starting at 150, 200 thousand…

In 2018 Banksy sold a smaller, framed painting of “Girl with Balloon” at Sotheby’s in London.

AUDIO: Can I sell it now for £860,000. And sold for $860,000 [SOUND OF GAVEL]

That’s $1.4 million U.S. dollars.

No sooner had the gavel struck the deal than the painting began beeping and lowering itself through the bottom of the frame where Banksy had secretly installed a shredder.

Witnesses could only watch as the device turned half the painting to ribbons.

The buyer decided to keep the piece of performance art until now.

The half-trashed piece of work—renamed “Love in the Bin”—goes back on the Sotheby’s auction block October 14th. It’s expected to fetch as much as $8.3 million.

Turning treasure to trash and back again. Now that’s recycling that pays off!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

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