# Banksy's Shredded Art
On October 5, 2018, Banksy rigged his print Girl With Balloon to shred itself the moment it sold at Sotheby's for 860,000 pounds, and half the canvas slid through a hidden blade before the auction room's eyes. Social media users turned the half-shredded image into a parody template within days, swapping the canvas for Brett Kavanaugh, the US Constitution and raw potatoes.
## Origin
Sotheby's London auctioned a Banksy print titled Girl With Balloon for 860,000 pounds on October 5, 2018. The instant the gavel came down, a shredder hidden in the frame activated and half the canvas fed itself through the blade in front of bidders and cameras[1]. That same day, Banksy posted a photo of the half-destroyed piece to Instagram with the caption 'going, going, gone,' which gained over one million likes[3]. On October 6, Banksy released a video walking viewers through the hidden mechanism he had installed in the frame years earlier[2].
- **Platform:** Sotheby's auction / Instagram (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown (parody format by various users; source artwork by Banksy)
- **Date:** 2018
## Overview
Parodies of Banksy's Shredded Art keep the composition intact: a gilded frame, half the artwork visible above, vertical paper strips below. Posters replace the Girl With Balloon print with a politician, a document or an object they want shown as destroyed. Political cartoonist Sean Delonas drew left-leaning Supreme Court Justices as donkeys watching a Brett Kavanaugh portrait slide through a frame labeled 'Supreme Court,' while Twitter user @LeahMcElrath put the US Constitution in the frame instead[1]. Less partisan riffs followed, including a @joophazenberg tweet that fed potatoes into the shredder and watched them come out as fries[3].
## How to Use
Parodies keep Banksy's gold frame and swap the canvas inside. Users often replace Girl With Balloon with a politician, a document or an object they want shown falling apart. The half-visible top edge and vertical paper strips underneath are the visual cues that make the joke read at a glance, so edits reproduce them exactly.
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Banksy's Shredded Art?
Banksy's Shredded Art refers to parody edits of the 2018 prank in which Banksy rigged his print Girl With Balloon to shred itself the moment it was sold at Sotheby's in London[1]. Users swap the canvas for other subjects while keeping the frame[3].
### Where did Banksy's Shredded Art come from?
The prank happened at Sotheby's London on October 5, 2018, when a buyer paid 860,000 pounds for Girl With Balloon and the frame's hidden shredder activated during the sale[1]. Banksy explained the mechanism in a video the next day[2].
### What does Banksy's Shredded Art mean?
Online, the format is used to mock something the poster sees as destroyed or falling apart, such as a political nominee, a founding document or a potato turned into fries[1]. The frame itself carries the joke[3].
### How do you use Banksy's Shredded Art?
Replace the Girl With Balloon canvas with a different subject while keeping the gold frame and paper strips below. BoingBoing posted a web generator in October 2018 that applied the effect to any uploaded image[4].
### Is Banksy's Shredded Art still popular?
The format peaked in October 2018 right after the Sotheby's auction, when Washington Post coverage caught it crossing into political cartoons[1]. References to the half-shredded Girl With Balloon still surface around Banksy news and art auction headlines[3].
## References
1. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/10/09/banksys-stunt-has-become-meme-everything-people-think-has-been-shredded-like-constitution/]()
2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfqGfovubhg]()
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/banksys-shredded-art]()
4. [https://boingboing.net/2018/10/07/upload-your-art-to-the-online.html]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/banksys-shredded-art
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