Author
Banksy
Movement / period
Street art
Technique
stencil, spray paint
Where it is
Street mural / private versions
The shredded version was renamed 'Love is in the Bin' and three years later sold for £18.5m, many times more.
Highlights
Facts & legends
- In 2018 the picture partly self-destructed via a shredder hidden in the frame, right after selling at Sotheby's.
- The shredded version was renamed 'Love is in the Bin' and three years later sold for £18.5m, many times more.
- Polls have named Girl with Balloon Britain's favourite work of art.
- Banksy reworked the image several times — including with a Syrian refugee girl for charity.
- Banksy's identity has never been officially revealed.
Estimated value
What it is worth today
The shredded version, renamed Love Is in the Bin, sold for about £18.5 million in 2021 — many times what it fetched seconds before it self-destructed.
More details A stencil beneath Waterloo Bridge became an emblem of hope, then a printed icon, and finally the material of a 2018 auction performance. This is not one object but a motif whose meaning changes with wall, caption, and market.
It began on a London wall
The motif appeared beneath Waterloo Bridge in 2002, not in an auction room
Sotheby's traces the first Girl with Balloon to a stencil beneath Waterloo Bridge on London's South Bank in 2002. A black silhouette leans forward with one hand extended toward a red heart-shaped balloon. The city surface belonged to the image: stains, cracks, and empty space made the balloon's separation physically palpable.
That street work must not be confused with later canvases and screenprints. Banksy returned to the motif in different places and media. A wall could disappear beneath repairs or paint; a print became portable and saleable. Girl with Balloon therefore has no single material original in the conventional museum sense. It has an originating image and multiple authorised embodiments.
One gesture permits opposite stories
The girl may be losing the balloon or choosing to release it
The stencil is radically economical. Hair and dress blow left, the balloon travels right, and a gap separates hand from string. We do not see the preceding moment, so the hand may follow a loss or complete a voluntary release. Red is the only emotional colour in an otherwise monochrome field.
Some versions were accompanied by THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE. The phrase tilts interpretation toward hope without cancelling loss: the promise appears where the desired object is already out of reach. Without words, the same pose can mean separation, growing up, or freedom. The image reads instantly but refuses one final moral.
The stencil became an editioned icon
Screenprinting carried a site-specific image away from its wall
Canvases and signed and unsigned screenprint editions followed. These were not secret reproductions of graffiti but authorised translations authenticated through Banksy's Pest Control office. Heavy frame, paper, and canvas altered the encounter: an urban intervention entered collections and became a commodity.
A 2017 survey reported by Sotheby's placed Balloon Girl first among works favoured by the British public. The poll does not make it an official national masterpiece, but it registers remarkable recognition. Long before the famous auction, the motif had crossed between street art, popular graphic language, and the collectors' market.
In 2018 the shredder cut a canvas, not the wall
The mechanism activated after the hammer and stopped about halfway
On 5 October 2018, a canvas Girl with Balloon in a massive frame sold at Sotheby's London for £1,042,000. Seconds after bidding closed, the lower canvas moved through a cutter concealed in the frame and emerged in long strips. The upper section, including girl and balloon, remained inside.
Banksy later released a video saying complete destruction had been intended but the mechanism stopped. Sotheby's and the room did not expect the action; theories about preparation abound, yet the machine, activation, and artist's acknowledgement are documented. The buyer completed the purchase. Pest Control issued a new certificate and the object became Love is in the Bin.
Destroying the commodity created a more expensive commodity
Love is in the Bin sold for £18,582,000 in 2021
Three years later the work returned to the same London saleroom. Nine bidders competed for roughly ten minutes and the price reached £18.582 million with premium. Sotheby's called it the first artwork created live during an auction—a claim from the auction house that also shows how quickly accident and action entered an official market narrative.
The paradox exceeds a joke about wealthy buyers. Banksy attacked the untouchable collectible object, but frame, certificate, and story made damage unique. The shredder did not remove art from the market; it supplied the market with an unrepeatable event. The girl remained an emblem of hope while her auction double became a story about the market's ability to purchase even its own critique.
Official sources
Where to check
- Girl with Balloon: first mural and screenprint editionsSotheby's
- The 2018 auction and creation of Love is in the BinSotheby's
- The 2021 sale and auction recordSotheby's
- The hidden shredder and the artist's accountSotheby's
- The buyer's decision and the renamed workSotheby's
- Authentication and certificates for Banksy's worksPest Control Office
- Artist's official archiveBanksy
Visual context
