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Me neither, but even then it's a win all around.
Sotheby's wins, the buyer wins (not what he expected but something even better), Banksy wins...
PepOne-
even then it's a win all around.
Is it?
It's either Banksy moving into performance art and shredding the piece in a stunt setup with the knowledge of Sotheby's and possibly the 'buyer'. A stunt which has resulted in a lot of hype for both Banksy and Sotheby's and looks like it's increased the value of the piece, or, it's him actually trying to be subversive by destroying a piece of his work but failing miserably because all he's done is generate himself and Sotheby's a load of exposure and instead of the piece being destroyed, it looks like its increased in value.
Either way, I wouldn't say that any or all of, a high class auction house, someone with £1m to drop on a Banksy or the artist himself, picking up a 'win' is something I need to be celebrating.
I guess if you're a Banksy fan you might disagree with the above enjoy his antics but the way I see it it's probably a played out artist struggling to stay relevant and ultimately playing into the hands of the establishment that I think he'd like us to imagine he doesn't care for and if not then it's just a massive fail at being 'punk'.
M_V
It wouldn’t surprise me.
Increase in value = higher commission. Think about how many people probably visited their site to see if they had other Banksy pieces for sale after reading one of the probably hundreds of articles that have been written/posted about the stunt.