In a video posted on Instagram, Banksy revealed how he installed a shredding machine inside his iconic piece Girl With Balloon to prevent it from selling at auction.

Banksy revealed he installed a shredding machine, which is operated by a remote device, inside his iconic artwork which shredded itself just seconds after it was sold for £1 million.

The Girl with Balloon piece started to self-destruct on Friday night and left the buyers at the Sotheby’s London auction house stunned.

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And now, in a video posted to Instagram, Banksy has revealed he placed a shredder inside the artwork. He wrote:

Watch the video below:

Video credit: Banksy/Instagram

“The urge to destroy is also a creative urge – Picasso.”

“A few years ago I secretly built a shredder into a painting in case it was ever put up for auction.”

In the video, he can be seen building a shredder which is operated by a remote device.

The footage has been viewed more than 5 million times, leaving people stunned and shocked.

Banksy, who is a Bristol-born artist whose true identity has never been officially revealed, posted a picture of the moment on Instagram with the caption: “Going, going, gone…”

Even after being destroyed, an art broker believes its value has now gone up.

Joey Syer, co-founder of the website MyArtBroker.com said:

“The auction result will only propel this further and given the media attention this stunt has received, the lucky buyer would see a great return on the £1.02m they paid last night.”

“This is now part of art history in its shredded state and we’d estimate Banksy has added at a minimum 50% to its value, possibly as high as being worth £2m plus.”

Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s senior director and head of contemporary art in Europe, said: “It appears we just got Banksy-ed.”

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