Banksy's self-shredding Girl with Balloon has left quite the mark on the art world.
Not only has the work become the subject of memes, but it's been described as the artist's greatest work, and its value has likely jumped sharply following the incident.
So it'd be mad if the buyer of the $1.4 million work didn't decide to keep it, which is exactly what she will be doing.
"When the hammer came down last week and the work was shredded, I was at first shocked, but gradually I began to realise that I would end up with my own piece of art history," the buyer, identified as a female European collector and a long-standing client of Sotheby's, said in a statement.
Shortly after being sold at auction for three times the expected price, a secret shredder in the frame of Girl with Balloon was activated, and the work was cut into pieces.
Since the incident, the artwork has been given a cheeky new title: Love is in the Bin.
Banksy revealed how he installed the shredder an Instagram post.
Despite speculation of Sotheby's collaborating with Banksy to destroy, or rather create another work, the artist's former gallerist Steve Lazarides dismissed those rumours.
"I worked for him for 12 years, the idea of him colluding with an institution to pull off a stunt is the complete antithesis to his philosophy," he said in a statement.
