To the surprise of many, one of Banksy’s iconic “Girl With Balloon” paintings sold for $1.4 million at auction and then promptly self-destructed on Saturday. But at least one professional is skeptical that neither the auction house nor the buyer knew the fate of the piece.
“The due diligence a good art advisory would have done would have blown that hoax,” Suzanne Gyorgy, the head of Citi Private Bank’s Art Advisory and Finance group, told WealthManagement.com.
Advisors to the wealthy interested in selling or purchasing high-end art don’t just rely on private banks to facilitate private transactions. Gyorgy said her group does the same due diligence on artwork up for auction, including a visit to the auction house to inspect a piece to ensure it has been cared for properly. That often includes removing a piece of art from its frame which, in the case of Banksy’s “Girl With Balloon” painting, would have revealed a hidden shredder implanted to destroy it. Even handling the painting and feeling its weight might have raised questions, she said.
Like other art professionals, Gyorgy also found the size of the frame to be disproportionately large for the 40-inch-high work and where it was hung at Sotheby’s in London to be unusual. “That’s not a piece that would normally be in an evening sale ... and not where they would normally hang that.”
The identities of the buyer and underbidder, both of whom were bidding anonymously by telephone, remain undisclosed, according to The New York Times. Sotheby’s said in a statement emailed to The Times on Sunday that the successful buyer was “a private client, who was as surprised as we were, and with whom we’re still in discussions.”
Watch this Banksy painting "self-destruct" moments after being sold for $1.4 million at auction https://t.co/640TM7q0O3 pic.twitter.com/qvhqJYtHaU
— CNN (@CNN) October 8, 2018
But the impact of the painting shredding itself–which was caught on camera by someone at Sotheby's and posted to Instagram by Banksy–certainly made an impact. If not, some speculated, in the form of increasing the value of his works, than as a spectacle.
"It was brilliant theater," Gyorgy said.
