The owner of a Banksy shredded their copy to double the price - it's now worth a quid

A funny thing that Banksy did was to remotely shred his own painting at an auction last week - this we can all agree on. Watch this and tell us you don’t find it funny:

Yes, very good, well done Mr Banksy, you’ve done it again etc. 

Thing is, the news that the print has just about doubled in price since the shredding has plopped some very bad idea seeds into the brains of certain owners of Banksy’s work. 

Like one misguided fan who was the proud possessor of a ‘Girl With Balloon’ print - one of only 600 mint condition examples, worth more than £40,000 - and took the extremely cavalier decision to absolutely deck the bottom of it with a stanley knife. They then attempted to get it relisted at £80,000, because, you know, they have a brain that does not work like the rest of us.

Of course, art experts refused the piece, saying it was “opportunistic vandalism” and that it was now worth one single quid.

At least some people asked first:

But no, this enterprising young tearaway went ahead and simply laid into it anyway, completely mucking it to heck and back. 

Ian Syer, co-founder of www.myartbroker.com said:

“Banksy is unique to the art world. No other artist captures the hearts and minds of the public like he does. However, when Banksy does something crazy like shredding his own artwork, it will naturally have a dramatic affect on values. 

“What this person today seems to have done is needlessly ruin a print worth around £40k and reduce its value to almost nothing. We strongly recommend nobody else takes valuable art and tries to cash in on what history will judge a simply brilliant stunt. 

“There are limited numbers of Girl With Balloon prints in the world. Today, we lost one and it’s a crying shame.”

However, hear us out here: we reckon this story is even funnier than the original - sure, Banksy made art history with his stunt, but this is internet history, and who can put a price on that? It’s certainly worth more than a pound - we’d pay at least a fiver for it. 

Mystery owner - hold out, you might be holding onto a winner here.

(Image: Getty)