After the auction, she allowed Sotheby’s to show it in an impromptu exhibition. “About 5,000 people came through our doors to see it,” Baker says. “It was quite incredible.”
The work was subsequently loaned to a private museum in Baden-Baden, Germany, and then placed on “long-term loan” to the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart in 2019.
Baker says that immediately after the sale, technicians from Pest Control, the name of Banksy’s authentication body, disabled the shredder. “It no longer functions,” she says. “The mechanics are still inside but it’s been completely deactivated, so it won’t happen again.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.