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"Are we expecting it? Not really. Perhaps we
are hoping for it," said auctioneer Arnaud Oliveux of Artcurial
auction house in Paris, which is selling three Banksy prints
next week. "I would love it if something happens."
The British artist has done more to cultivate his mystique in
the two weeks since a print of one of his best known works,
"Girl With a Balloon", slid half way through a shredder embedded
in its frame moments after it was sold at Sotheby's in London.
Banksy released a new video this week that suggested the
partial-destruction was a malfunction: it showed an identical
print in the same frame being entirely shredded, with the
caption "in rehearsals it worked every time".
Oliveux said if Banksy was planning another stunt for the next
auction, it probably wouldn't involve a secret shredder.
"Banksy never repeats himself. Here, you see the frame, there's
nothing at all hidden in the structure. But perhaps we could
imagine a different stunt."
The auction house said it cannot predict how high the bidding
will go for its three prints, but it expects the extra attention
from Banksy's last stunt will have an impact on prices. All the
seats are taken at the auction and the international media are
showing up.
Bidding on a print of "Stop and Search", depicting Dorothy from
"The Wizard of Oz" being searched by a policeman, starts at just
30,000 euros ($35,000), a bargain compared to the million pounds
"Girl With a Balloon" fetched moments before it self-destructed.
($1 = 0.8700 euros)
(Reporting by Michaela Cabrera; Writing by Richard Lough;
Editing by Peter Graff)
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