If only Morley Safer of 60 Minutes were here to give this the public derision it so richly deserves:
On Thursday, three years after Banksy’s act of destructive creation, the anonymous buyer put up for auction “Girl With Balloon,” or rather, its successor — the retitled “Love Is in the Bin.” After nine bidders battled for 10 minutes, the semi-shredded artwork sold for $25.4 million. That’s more than three times the auction house’s top estimate going into Thursday’s auction and more than 18 times what the spray-paint-on-canvas creation sold for in 2018 when it was intact.
BBC News arts editor Will Gompertz called the stunt ‘brilliant in both conception and execution’ in its indictment of the art world, one in which people aren’t disappointed that a piece of art was destroyed but concerned only with how that destruction has changed its value as an “asset.”
(The Washington Post, October 15, 2021)
No doubt Safer would’ve drawn the inescapable symbolism of the art world being so awash in trash these days that people are literally paying millions for, well, trash. Of course, nobody pays me the big bucks he got paid. So here are my two cents’ worth:
I fully appreciate the obvious indictment of the art world this sale represents. Not to mention that it gives credence to abiding suspicions that auction houses like Sotheby’s are little more than laundromats for ill-gotten gains.
But, after reading about it, my first and lasting impression is one that bemoans this celebration of our shared humanity. After all, this story hails the spending of $25.4 million on a painting intentionally shredded to make a mockery not only of its value but of any fool who buys it.
Meanwhile, as Sotheby’s indulged bidders in this ostentatious and profligate consumption, I doubt a thought was spared for the international relief organizations that are struggling to feed, clothe, and house an increasing number of displaced and migrating peoples.
