FOR an artist that’s known for his stunts, this could be Banksy’s most perfect art world prank.

After the gavel fell Friday at Sotheby’s auction house in London, Banksy’s “Girl with Balloon” was reduced to shreds — another apparent act in the disruptive career of the anonymous British graffiti artist.

The iconic image of a girl reaching out for a red, heart-shaped balloon, sold for ￡1.04 million (US$1.36 million) and moments later, a shredder hidden inside the “artist’s frame” started its work, according to a news release from Sotheby’s, and the art “self-destructed.”

Banksy summed up the stunt with this quote on his Instagram account — “Going, going, gone....” with a picture showing stunned onlookers as the shredded art emerges from the bottom of the frame.

“It appears we just got Banksy-ed,” Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s senior director of contemporary art, said in the news release.

There’s no word on how the shredder started operating at the key moment after the auction, though it could have been activated by a remote mechanism.

The auction price for the spray paint and acrylic on canvas “Girl with Balloon” tied the artist’s previous record set in 2008.

Banksy, who made his reputation as a street artist known for provocative and sometimes politically charged stencils, protects his identity. His art has appeared unannounced on city walls around the world, helping to create strong demand for his images.

Earlier Friday at Sotheby’s, Jenny Saville became the top living female artist at auction when her self-portrait, “Propped,” fetched ￡9.5 million.

The 7-foot-tall (213-cm-tall) painting depicts a fleshy nude, perched on a stool and gazing in the mirror, scribbled with text. Completed in 1992, the work brought the British artist international acclaim after it appeared on the front cover of the Times Saturday Review later that year. It was bought by advertising mogul Charles Saatchi.

The work, estimated by Sotheby’s at ￡3 million to ￡4 million, was offered as part of the estate of David Teiger, a Museum of Modern Art trustee who died in 2014. The collection’s proceeds will benefit the Teiger Foundation for the Support of Contemporary Art.

The auction record for a living male artist is US$58.4 million for a Jeff Koons sculpture.

(SD-Agencies)