An art lover who owned their own Banksy print worth £40,000 has reportedly shredded it to emulate the iconic artist, only to find that it is now worthless.
Leading art experts claim they were contacted by one owner who wished to sell their own print of the ‘Girl With a Balloon’, days after Banksy attracted worldwide attention for shredding it at an auction where it had sold for more than £1 million.
The owner had attempted to copy Banksy by slicing strips into the painting using a Stanley knife, and wanted to sell it for £80,000 – twice the price he initially paid.
But the stunt has now massively backfired – with experts describing it as “opportunistic vandalism”. The print, which was one of just 600 in the world, is now believed to be less than £1.
It comes after Banksy stunned art lovers at Sotheby’s Auction House by activating a remote-controlled shredder inside the painting’s frame, only moments after it sold for $1.1 million.
Ian Syer, the co-founder of MyArtBroker.com, told the Daily Mail: “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 £40,000 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.”