--- title: The Memes of Banksy's Wild Self-Shredding Painting Are Here description: After street artist Banksy got his $1.4 million painting to shred itself after selling, memes have now come in to memorialize the moment canonical: https://time.com/5422104/banksy-shredding-memes/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-11T16:18:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:55:25.913Z og:title: Memes of Banksy's Wild Self-Shredding Painting Are Forever og:description: The painting may have been shredded, but the memes will live forever og:url: https://time.com/5422104/banksy-shredding-memes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt00311593dd1f8c05/69893c6adb2987714f260ecd/banksy-art.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4376 og:image:height: 2462 og:image:alt: Exhibition of works by street artist Banksy in St Petersburg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Memes of Banksy's Wild Self-Shredding Painting Are Forever twitter:description: The painting may have been shredded, but the memes will live forever twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt00311593dd1f8c05/69893c6adb2987714f260ecd/banksy-art.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Banksy's Insane Self-Shredding Painting Is Gone But the Memes Live Forever > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a8e07f04-4814-4ff0-a451-17f5bad02294&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 11, 2018 4:18 PM UTC  A Balloon Girl mural on display at an exhibition of works by England-based street artist Banksy opening at St Petersburg's Manege Central Exhibition Hall. Anton Vaganov/TASS A Balloon Girl mural on display at an exhibition of works by England-based street artist Banksy opening at St Petersburg's Manege Central Exhibition Hall. Anton Vaganov/TASS Anton Vaganov—Anton Vaganov/TASS  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 11, 2018 4:18 PM UTC Leave it to [Banksy](http://time.com/5417659/banksy-art-self-destructs-1-million-sothebys/), master stunt artist, to not only get the world’s attention at an auction — but then make sure that his work is remembered in the form of viral memes. Last week, the anonymous artist best known for his arresting street art installations shocked the world (and one very unfortunate art buyer) when a piece titled “Girl With Red Balloon” [that sold for $1.4 million](http://time.com/money/5418695/banksy-girl-with-a-balloon-self-destruct-double/) at a Sotheby’s auction in London immediately [began shredding itself](https://www.instagram.com/p/BomXijJhArX/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed) upon purchase, the art slipping through the bottom of the frame and appearing below in neatly destroyed ribbons. While Banksy may have intended his guerrilla approach to the sale to be a dark commentary on capitalism, the stunt has only had the opposite effect: not only is his painting now more valuable than ever, but of course brands are getting in on the fun, creating their own “self-shredding” memes to play off of the pop culture moment. (Normal people are having fun with the meme, too, of course.) Looks like whatever Banksy does will have an afterlife — even if the intention is to destroy, not create. (In his Instagram post about the moment, the artist quoted Picasso: “The urge to destroy is also a creative urge.”) This begs the question: is shredded art now all the rage? It just might be. Check out some of the memes: > [](https://twitter.com/lidl%5Fireland/status/1049221384197611520) > [](https://twitter.com/zwentner/status/1049708344867508224) > [](https://twitter.com/maltesecreative/status/1049227118419353600) > [](https://twitter.com/joophazenberg/status/1049616436279296001) There are some other meme-ified takes on the art stunt, too. > [](https://twitter.com/BrandDNA/status/1049234306160181248) > [](https://twitter.com/eanweslynn/status/1048573701036302341) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5422104/banksy-shredding-memes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5422104/banksy-shredding-memes/"},"headline":"Banksy's Insane Self-Shredding Painting Is Gone But the Memes Live Forever","datePublished":"2018-10-11T16:18:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:55:25.913Z","description":"After street artist Banksy got his $1.4 million painting to shred itself after selling, memes have now come in to memorialize the moment","url":"https://time.com/5422104/banksy-shredding-memes/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Art"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt00311593dd1f8c05/69893c6adb2987714f260ecd/banksy-art.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt00311593dd1f8c05/69893c6adb2987714f260ecd/banksy-art.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Exhibition of works by street artist Banksy in St Petersburg","caption":"Exhibition of works by street artist Banksy in St Petersburg","creditText":"Anton Vaganov—Anton Vaganov/TASS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5422104/banksy-shredding-memes/","name":"Banksy's Insane Self-Shredding Painting Is Gone But the Memes Live Forever"}}]}] ```