Hi I've received a lot of messages asking if I can comment on this prank that was pulled the other day by an English artist called Banksy a very infamous street artists --is been going for like a few decades and is an anonymous artist. No one really knows who he is, but he's works actually so for a lot of money these days. And there was this Southers B auction the other day. If you don't know about Sotheby's they're one of the world's most prestigious auction houses and this was in London I believe it was and a Banksy painting called Girl with Balloon.

Here it's actually a very famous painting and it's done with spray paint on canvas with like a stencil. That's what a lot of A Banksy art is. and this one actually. they estimated to go for 200 the three hundred thousand pounds, but it actually ended up selling for like a million pounds.

And the prank was. When the hammer went down, it's shredded itself. Well done. Absolutely brilliant.

Let's watch the video that was posted by Banksy on his Instagram account just after it happened. So let's have a look. Few years ago I secretly built a shredder into a painting and we'll get to this. how it's actually constructed and how it's it's There's a bit of going on here in case it was ever put up for option.

Okay gentlemen, in 52 and they're on the phone with the phone bidders apparently And the hammered rocks. And just after the hammer dropped itself, Absolutely brilliant. One of the biggest biggest pranks ever pulled off. Absolutely fantastic and like it literally shredded itself moments after the hammer dropped.

So obviously somebody was there in the crowd with a remote trigger for this thing. So I thought we'd actually take a closer look at the hardware and whether or not this thing's legit. Now the first thing you got to ask is was it actually the canvas itself that was actually shredded or was it actually that was actually faked and the original is still rolled up inside. So that's an yawns old magician trick where you pretend to you know, cut, cut, or shred something up when you actually haven't the original still like you know, rolled up inside and well, that's possible.

But I don't think so because that would be completely lame. Really, it would. and I don't think Banks is lame. So I think it actually did shred itself.

The other thing, you'll notice that it actually stopped about halfway and I think that is completely deliberate I don't think it jammed or ran out of battery or anything like that I think that was that was predetermined, it was part of the art of this thing. this thing I like because Banksy is like kind of famously doesn't like his paintings being sold and that's what he implies in the video. You know, just in case the painting was ever sold, then you know it would shred itself. So that was the whole the point of this.

But ironically, Banksy has sold art in The past and this particular one go with a balloon is actually our dates from 2006 and apparently they sold a lot of these things. Um so yeah. and if you actually have a look at the Southern Bees website here and actually says X'q in 2006, this work is unique and spray paint and acrylic on canvas mounted on board in artist's frame. and of course the all-important provenance which is that were you know the proof where it actually comes from it was acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in 2006.

so that was 12 years ago. So we are led to believe that this painting was given in that original frame from 12 years ago and not sorry. That is absolute first of all base. He himself actually says there in the video that a few years ago I secretly built.

not like a decade ago I secretly built a shredder into this thing. It was just like a few years ago I don't think it was even a few years. it definitely wasn't Twelve years ago this footage was not shot in 2006 I Guarantee you so. Obviously apparently nobody knows who the original owner the seller of this thing is.

Sotheby's obviously no and the next question is were Sotheby's in on it and I don't thinks like it's possible but I don't think so. They're really. You know they're one of the world's most prestigious our auctioneers and you know, really like stiff upper-lip kind of thing. So I I don't think they were in on it I think they got pranked or Bank seed as they're calling it.

So yeah, it's possible. but I suspect not. But what I believe is what's happened is that the the original owner is somebody who knows Banksy and is in on this whole thing because if the original owner acquired it in 2006, this frame is very new. It was only done recently as we'll get into and banks even admits it was only a couple of years ago.

Implies that in the video then what's banks are going to do? Ask for that. Ah, give me the painting back I Wanna put in this nice frame for you? You know she'll be right. No worries, No, it's not gonna happen. The original owner was in on I Reckon now the next thing as you can see here: Banksy Supposedly did this behind-the-scenes video where he built this showing building that shredder into a painting and look.

It just uses a exacto razor blades there on a block of wood with this big thick steel bar on the top. There is absolutely no way that this is the shredding mechanism. Why several reasons? Well, the blades are not angled correctly for it. You are not going to shred a painting like we actually short a saw actually be shredded here.

It's not going to come out like that from a bunch of right angle exacto blades. It's not going to happen. It's done with a commercial shredder which is built in almost certainly built into this metal work down the bottom. and also if you note when the when it actually comes out, it's actually towards the front of the frame and the and this is actually the back of the frame.

This shows Banksy Supposedly arts all ready to go put in the back cover on the frame because it's all like the gilded thing on the front and this part here is at the back. This is definitely the back, so if we have a look at it here, the painting is going to be on the front. The painting would have to actually wrap it somehow wrap itself, come up here and be pulled through these through the razor blades. They're not mounted in the right direction to actually do that anyway.

there's two motors here and here. like supposedly roller motors there I'm not sure if they're fake, they may not be. They main may be part of the mechanism, but certainly if you had an industrial like a commercial shredder mechanism down built into the metalwork here that ejected the paper from the bottom, we can't actually see a slit down the bottom. So yeah, but it definitely did not come through.

These razor blades that have to bend itself up, curl itself up like this over the razor blades and then what's pulling it from the other side of the razor blade? You can't push it from the front of the razor blades. It's just it's just not gonna happen. So obviously it's it's being pulled through like a commercial shredding mechanism would actually do. So Yeah.

I Think that all these showing this is just. it's just showmanship, That's not the mechanism that did it. And as for the other stuff in here, I Believe this white pack here is probably the batteries. that looks like a bunch of possibly 18 650 cells like that in a large pack.

There's a rubber at the front to keep it in there and is like this, this custom metal frame in there, this red and black device here. We've got a couple of crimp terminals though, some commercial crimp ones to join the wires. So yeah, that's probably like the the motor drive. So is that another motor snuck in there? I'm not exactly sure, but it looks like it cuz these that this is a motor drive wire going over here like this.

You can see another one going over here like this. So maybe it did have some sort of guide roller or something like that to help it so that it kept it straight straight into the shredder. But obviously the razor blades are not the shredder. That is some sort of you know, domestic or commercial shredding mechanism in the bottom there.

So could this have been done in 2006 over 12 years ago And just like secretly lying dormant for that long? No. as I said that video, this video was not shot in 2006 and there's enough battery capacity there you could actually power a receiver for that long. But then you've got all sorts of issues. You can't have something designed that reliable to be guaranteed to work in twelve years time.

you'd have to have, like if you use some sort of processor based system or whatever custom little processor in there, you would need to ensure that that was continuously watchdog reset so it didn't latch up or do anything like that. And there's you know, lots of little things that go into designing a long term battery solution like something like this. like you wouldn't All: you wouldn't use battery contacts for example, because they could corrode you wouldn't use a lithium ion battery. For example, you use Lithium Primary Soldier.

definitely wouldn't use Alkaline Z'. So in this particular case, I would choose a Lithium primary solution like Cr123 S. You can get them in 18 650 form factors as non-rechargeable primary cells. You can get primary Lithium D cells I've used before for very, just such a very long term powering projects and sometimes something like that.

So you could actually power a sensor for that long. And what type of sensor is it? Well, you could use Wireless You can use infrared. You could even use ultrasonic or or something like that I Yeah, look, it? isn't has not been in there for 12 years. This is a recent prank done as a massive publicity stunt and it was almost certainly coordinated I think with the original owner, probably without Sotheby's knowledge because they've got too much reputation to lose in that aspect of it and really like it couldn't be like a timer based system.

The timing was way too coincidental. as soon as that hammer went down, apparently like an a little alarm went off. We can't see that in there, but a buzzer went off or something and then the mechanism started up and then it just starts shredded itself. So it's definitely not a timer based system.

I Think Almost certainly somebody was in the audience triggering it, and there's some speculation that it may have used some sort of, you know, voice activation thing. Or you know, when the hammer went down, it triggered it something like that In theory that's possible in practice you would. There was no way you would implement that reliably. You just wouldn't do it, especially a any anything long-term It's just it.

there's no way that's guaranteed to work so you wouldn't at all choose that sort of solution. It was definitely some sort of remote trigger thing. Whether or not Banksy was in the audience and did it himself or whether or not some collaborator did it, we just don't know. But yeah, it was certainly triggered in the audience.

and it's a recent prank. And yeah, it just did not sit there for that long. So really, you know we're probably talking weeks or a couple of months at most battery power. and it looks like assuming that those white things are the batteries.

There's more than enough there to power any wireless receiver or any you know, any sort of receiver solution for that for years, probably. And the other thing is, if you actually look it now, it actually comes out like this. It actually comes out pre crinkled. You can see this big fold in the canvas here.

It's obviously been stuck inside the mechanism, like sort of around in the mechanism, preloaded in there, ready to go for quite some time. And it. but like it's probably been like the start of it. probably preesh shred and then cut it off.

And when you're designing something like this yeah, half that, you know. reliability is everything, so they probably you know, shredded. The battery pack would probably have to have enough power to do a couple of test shreds and then they put the the proper canvas in there, the original canvas in, and then sort of like start it for a little bit. sort of like pre shred it and then it'll be ready to go.

So yeah, the battery pack probably had enough power to do a couple of test shreds because you don't want to set it all up and then connect your battery like there's too many reliability and then cross your fingers and hope it works. They're too many reliability issues there, so it's obviously like pre-creased inside and of course that that just doesn't fit As I said, it just doesn't fit the this razor blade system here. That's just a red herring. well done there.

I'm surprised people haven't picked up on that. It's just obvious that wasn't what was used to shred it. So however you look at this, it's you know there's a quite a bit of effort that goes into building something like this. So I'm down ball I Don't know who Banksy is when he's got any sort of you know, making ie.

background or something like that. You know it requires some significant effort, especially if you want to ensure the reliability of a prank like this. So yeah, so got mad skills or yeah, somebody helped him out with the build on this thing and here's some other footage of it, like after a - wind itself taking it away. Don't you see? it's like it's not at the back of the painting there Banksy There we spot him.

and apparently this is the guy here who was filming it the whole time. apparently. so is that Banksy Is it one of his collaborators? We just we just don't know. But yeah, those glasses look dodgy, don't They probably had a backup little spy cam inside the city side those glasses just in case.

But yeah, you can see that it's there. They are taking it away and that's it. Obviously didn't come from back. Yay! Applause! Well done.

Banksy Absolutely brilliant. So that was. that was fantastic. Ironically, it's probably worth more now in its half shredded state than it was before, but apparently there are lots of these original ones around.

But this one, people just go crazy over this stuff and now this is like gonna be worth probably more than the million pounds that some anonymous buyer paid for it. Something similar to this kind of, but it wasn't at an auction. It was a public art thing where an artist who called farewell installed a shredder with the razor blades. See how they're mounted in the vertical direction like that.

That's how you need to do it if you wish, read something right there. he is actually creating and putting the razor blades in there and and then installing it in an outdoor nice outdoor sign things and open it up and secretly stick it on the inside. So when shreds the paper, it doesn't eject it out. but it actually just deliberately shreds the advertisement.

So that's very cool. Here we go. Fantastic. There we go.

Hoop just shreds them and then presumably you can remove it and you just left with the Oh any hang it up there you go. So maybe did Banksy get inspiration from that I Don't know. Anyway, that was very cool. That was very well done and it may not have.

You know there's a lot of things that could have gone wrong in a build like this but they pulled it off. but like I said it was not there for 12 years it like lying dormant. This was a deliberate ploy by Banksy to you know, a deliberate you know, performance art or whatever you want to call it. It was very well done, very deliberate and Sotheby's probably weren't in on it I suspect.

But anyway, it's fantastic. Let me know what you think down below if you got any other theories or anything like that. but yeah, it's really a prank. Thumbs up.

Catch you next time.