{"id":2051,"date":"2018-10-09T15:26:26","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T19:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/?p=2051"},"modified":"2023-07-25T11:44:54","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T15:44:54","slug":"banksy-painting-self-destructs-at-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/2018\/10\/banksy-painting-self-destructs-at-auction\/","title":{"rendered":"Banksy Painting Self-Destructs at Auction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Immediately after being auctioned off for $1.4 million, art prankster Banksy\u2019s\u00a0Girl with Balloon\u00a0<\/em>shredded itself<\/a> in front of a shocked auction audience at Sotheby\u2019s in London.<\/p>\n

Banksy\u00a0revealed on their Instagram account<\/a>\u00a0that the act was planned years in advance through placement of a remote-controlled mechanism on the back of the canvas. \u00a0The writing accompanying the video states that \u201ca few years ago [Banksy] secretly built a shredder into a painting in case it was ever put up for auction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The situation is unprecedented with regards to how the mystery buyer\u2019s situation will proceed, as the shredding took place after the gavel struck and the bidder was confirmed as the buyer. \u00a0The general rule regarding risk of loss at an auction<\/a> states that risk lies with the seller until the sold item is physically possessed by the buyer, not when the agreement for purchase is confirmed. \u00a0The buyer should therefore be able to cancel the purchase agreement if so desired.<\/p>\n

Despite the flexibility the law allows, the buyer may have no incentive to cancel the purchase. \u00a0Joey Syer, co-founder of MyArtBroker, a website that regularly deals in the sale of Banksy artwork, estimates that the shredded painting’s value has increased by over 50% <\/a> as a result of the incident. \u00a0The painting could be resold for as much as $2.6 million, multiplying the buyer’s return if they were to go through with the purchase and resell.<\/p>\n

Sotheby\u2019s has denied any involvement in or prior knowledge of the incident.<\/p>\n

Image: Dominic Robinson<\/a>, Banksy Girl and Heart Balloon<\/a>,\u00a0CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Merve Ciplak is an Entertainment Highlight Contributor for the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law and a current first year student at Harvard Law School (Class of 2021).<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Immediately after being auctioned off for $1.4 million, art prankster Banksy\u2019s\u00a0Girl with Balloon\u00a0shredded itself in front of a shocked auction audience at Sotheby\u2019s in London. Banksy\u00a0revealed on their Instagram account\u00a0that the act was planned years in advance through placement of a remote-controlled mechanism on the back of the canvas. \u00a0The writing accompanying the video states […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31],"tags":[276,99],"ppma_author":[382],"class_list":["post-2051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-highlight","tag-art-law","tag-highlight"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZjrR-x5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":382,"user_id":39,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jsel","display_name":"JSEL","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4abb87a025d5a7951a4b4249facf4d22ea8002b216770229a96689038d0f83bc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2051"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}