Street artist Banksy appears to have pulled off his most jaw-dropping trick yet—having one of his million-dollar paintings shred itself moments after it sold at auction. 
 
 On Friday night, the “Girl with Balloon” painting sold for $1.12 million to a telephone bidder. Add in buyers permission, and the total cost would rise to $1.37 million. But Banksy—whose real identity remains anonymous—had fit the frame with a shredder that would activate once the painting was sold. 
 
 It was auctioned at Sotheby's, in London. After the painting self-destructed, senior director Alex Branczik told the audience: “We’ve just been Banksy’ed.” “We have not experienced this situation in the past,” Branczik said, according to Financial Times. “...where a painting spontaneously shredded, upon achieving a (near) record for the artist. We are busily figuring out what this means in an auction context.” 
 
 Sotheby’s and the buyer are now discussing whether or not the sale will go ahead. Despite the painting technically being destroyed, there was speculation the painting (or what’s left of it) could now be worth even more. Sotheby’s issued a statement saying it was discussing options with the buyer. “We have talked with the successful purchaser who was surprised by the story. We are in discussion about next steps.” 
 
 Banksy uploaded a photo of the prank on his Instagram account, accompanied by the caption: “Going, going, gone…” It’s received more than 150,000 likes. Girl With Balloon first appeared on a wall in Great Eastern Street in London. 
 
 Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images 
 
 In August, a Banksy exhibition was held in Russia—only Banksy had nothing to do with it. The street artist posted a conversation between himself and a friend saying “what the hell was that?” 
 
 The exhibit organizers said his response was a compliment. The exhibit was expected to welcome 300,000 people from July to the end of September. 
 
 In a conversation with an unnamed person, Banksy said he “wishes he could find it funny,” but admitted he would never “charge people to see my art unless there’s a fairground wheel.” People online responded to this logic, agreeing that charging people to see the exhibit was an affront to everything the British street artist’s reputation represented. Many of the commentators disagreed and said that the exhibit was something they enjoyed and thought charging people to see his art only pushed the exhibit further. ||||| FILE - In this file image taken from video on Friday, Oct. 5, 2018, people watch as the spray-painted canvas "Girl with Balloon" by artist Banksy is shredded at Sotheby's, in London. Sotheby's says the... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this file image taken from video on Friday, Oct. 5, 2018, people watch as the spray-painted canvas "Girl with Balloon" by artist Banksy is shredded at Sotheby's, in London. Sotheby's says the winning bidder for a Banksy painting that self-destructed during an auction last week has decided... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this file image taken from video on Friday, Oct. 5, 2018, people watch as the spray-painted canvas "Girl with Balloon" by artist Banksy is shredded at Sotheby's, in London. Sotheby's says the winning bidder for a Banksy painting that self-destructed during an auction last week has decided... (Associated Press) FILE - In this file image taken from video on Friday, Oct. 5, 2018, people watch as the spray-painted canvas "Girl with Balloon" by artist Banksy is shredded at Sotheby's, in London. Sotheby's says the... (Associated Press) 
 
 Banksy posted a new video to his website Tuesday implying the partial shredding of his "Girl With Balloon" at a London auction was supposed to have been complete. 
 
 The video shows the famously anonymous artist constructing the shredding mechanism inside an ornate frame and pushing a button in a black box to activate the destruction at Sotheby's in London earlier this month. The act shocked the crowd, but the winning bidder, a European collector, went ahead and bought it anyway for $1.4 million, according to the auction house. 
 
 Sotheby's did not name the buyer. 
 
 The partial shredding drew speculation that the act was a stunt to increase the value of the painting of a young girl reaching for a heart-shaped red balloon. The canvas was shredded to right above the girl's head, leaving the balloon intact. The end of the new video notes: "In rehearsals it worked every time..." A complete shredding of the same design is then shown. 
 
 The nearly 3-minute long video is titled, "Shred the Love, the Director's cut." It shows hands and a hooded figure (Banksy is fond of hoodies) constructing the mechanism in a studio space, then it rolls on to the outside of Sotheby's before the auction. People milling about sipping Champagne and nibbling hors d'oeuvres are next up, including some standing in front of the painting. 
 
 The auction and partial shredding are shown, as is the work being taken off the wall at Sotheby's and carried out of the room. 
 
 Banksy has never disclosed his full identity. He began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England, and has become one of the world's best-known artists. His mischievous and often satirical images include two policemen kissing, armed riot police with yellow smiley faces and a chimpanzee with a sign bearing the words, "Laugh now, but one day I'll be in charge." 
 
 His "Girl With Balloon" was originally stenciled on a wall in east London and has been endlessly reproduced, becoming one of Banksy's best-known images.
– Newsweek is saying it could be Banksy's "most jaw-dropping trick yet," and it would be hard to find anyone who disagrees. It happened Friday night at a Sotheby's auction in London, when the enigmatic street artist's 2006 Girl With Balloon painting was sold off for $1.1 million to a bidder on the phone. However, shortly after the gavel came down on the sale, something unexpected happened: The print inside the frame started moving downward as it was slowly shredded. Per the Financial Times, via Vice, the shredding took place "by a mechanism apparently hidden within the base of the frame, with most of the work emerging from the bottom in strips." "We've just been Banksy'ed," Alex Branczik, Sotheby's senior director, told the crowd after the shredfest, adding he hadn't known ahead of time that this was going to happen and that "tonight we saw a little piece of Banksy genius." There are whispers that Banksy himself was at the auction to witness his self-destructive prank, with the Art Newspaper noting "a man dressed in black sporting sunglasses and a hat was seen scuffling with security guards near the entrance … shortly after the incident." On Instagram, Banksy posted a photo of the stunned audience watching his work get obliterated, mischievously captioning it: "Going, going, gone." The buyer may not be totally out of luck: Vice notes that while sales are usually nixed if works are damaged before they leave Sotheby's, the on-site annihilation could actually make the artwork even more valuable. "It's certainly the first piece to be spontaneously shredded as an auction ends," Branczik says.