Painting by Banksy Self-destructs During Sotheby's Auction

On the evening of October 5, the 2006 work titled Girl with Balloon by Banksy was sold at auction for £860,000.00. The last lot of the night, the painting mysteriously self-destructed as the contemporary art auction was coming to a close. Given that the alarm of the self-destruct mechanism hidden in the work was remotely activated precisely at the moment that the auction reached a record price—which directed the attention of auction-goers towards the painting being shredded as it slipped through its rigged frame—was Banksy present at the auction organized by Sotheby's? According to the information provided about the work in the auction catalog, the work was acquired directly from Banksy in 2006. A few days after the auction, the artist published a video that explained the internal shredding mechanism designed to be activated if the work was ever sold at auction. The painting partially self-destructed and a new work was created in the process. It was granted a certificate by Pest Control, the organism that authenticates the works by Banksy, and given a new title: Love is in the Bin. The buyer, a European collector and longtime client of Sotheby's, acquired it at the same hammer price of that night. Alex Branczik, Sotheby's head of contemporary art in Europe, said: "We are busy figuring out what this means in an auction context. The shredding is now an integral part of the artwork. We have not experienced a situation where a painting has spontaneously shredded." What has generated great debate in the art market is whether the value of the work has decreased or increased as result of the shredding?