Street Art fans are completely familiar with the ephemeral nature of art.

Sotheby’s may not be.

Last night at the venerated auction house in London the performance artist and wittily cerebral Street Artist Banksy apparently self-destructed an artwork that only seconds beforehand was hammered in at roughly a million.

Part of the October Contemporary Art Evening Auction here during the Frieze week, the auction had just sold the iconic “Girl With Balloon” when it slipped downward through the bottom of the frame before bidders eyes, turning the work into pasta pieces to be boiled and served al dente with a rich sayonara sauce.

Bansky. Image courtesy of the artist from the official Bansky Instagram account.

“Has Sotheby’s been framed?”
“Did Banksy sell and buy the piece for a stunt?”
“Is the art more or less valuable now?”
“Is Banksy Sticking it to the Man?
“Do unicorns really fart glitter?”

While the sometimes seemingly drunken conjecture and #hashtagging about who engineered this performance and who’s sorry/not sorry ricochets across our screens, a video that has been attributed to the artist asserts that this cutting achievement in ambush performance was on the boards for a while. As usual with the artist/team working collectively as Banksy, its not crystal clear who’s done what.

But there’s no doubt that Banksy again is the star and the reviews are apoplectic!