The painting of a young girl reaching for a red heart shaped balloon ¨Girl with Red Balloon¨ was created by British street artist Banksy and on Friday October 5, 2018 the painting self-destructed at Sotheby’s Auction House in London.

¨Girl with Red Balloon¨ was sold for $1.4 million to a mystery buyer. The buyer did decide to go through with the investment.

¨You could argue that the work is now more valuable,¨ said Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art.

The painting was in a large, heavy Victorian style frame which Banksy often poked fun at. Banksy takes ownership for shredding the painting with a video that shows him installing a shredder into the frame.

In 2006, according to Sotheby’s records, they received the painting directly from Banksy. Some think he’s a genius; while others are confused as to why Banksy would ruin his own artwork.

Sotheby’s is now in the hot seat ever since Andrew Bloch, marketing expert, took to Twitter with his opinions and theories. Sotheby’s and Banksy have denied the claims made that Sotheby’s was in on the Banksy stunt.

¨Sotheby’s had a duty of care to inspect the artwork pre-auction and would have seen the shredder in the frame, the unusually deep thickness, and the opening at the bottom,” Bloch tweeted.

Ever since the stunt, the painting was given a new name ¨Love Is In The Bin¨ and was granted a certificate of authenticity by Pest Control, Banksy’ authentication team.

Banksy has pulled many stunts on art museums like Museum of Modern Art when he displayed his artwork without any of the staff noticing. Museums like Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and Louvre Tate Britain have also been pranked.

¨I thought some of them were quite good. That’s why I thought, you know, put them in the gallery. Otherwise they would just sit at home and no one would see them,¨ Banksy said.