Banksy's Self-Shredding Painting Is Altered

Germany's Frieder Burda Museum isn't taking any chances
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 5, 2019 8:20 AM CST
Banksy's Self-Shredding Painting Loses Its Batteries
The shredded Banksy painting "Love Is in the Bin" is exhibited at the Frieder Burda Museum in Baden-Baden, Germany, on Tuesday.   (Uli Deck, DPA via AP)

The first museum to display Banksy's partially shredded canvas has deactivated its self-destructing frame to ensure "Love Is in the Bin" isn't actually thrown in the bin. "We opened up the frame and found the shredder machinery, the battery holders, the wires and satisfied ourselves that the batteries had been removed and the wires cut," Henning Schaper, director of Germany's Frieder Burda Museum, tells Reuters of the frame-embedded shredder meant to destroy 2006's "Girl With Balloon" after it sold for $1.4 million at Sotheby's in London in October. Two-thirds of the painting passed through the shredder before it malfunctioned, increasing the artwork's value, per the BBC.

Retitled "Love Is in the Bin," the painting is displayed for the first time Tuesday just as it appeared after the shredding. Strips of canvas hang from the frame, with the head of the female subject hidden behind it. The shredder was deactivated to keep the rest of the painting from passing through it at some later date. Per the BBC, there was some concern that a visitor at Frieder Burda might set it off. "Love Is in the Bin" will be on display at the museum in Baden-Baden until March 3, reports CNN. It will then move to the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany. Per Reuters, neither museum will charge visitors who wish to see the painting, in keeping with Banksy's attitude toward the democratization of art. (Get the buyer's thoughts on the shredding.)

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