LONDON - Art prankster Banksy has struck again.
A work by the elusive street artist apparently self-destructed in front of startled auction-goers on Friday, moments after being sold for 1.04 million pounds ($1.4 million).
The spray-painted canvas ``Girl With Balloon'' went under the hammer at Sotheby's in London, fetching more than three times its pre-sale estimate and equaling a record price for the artist.
Then, as an alarm sounded, it ran through a shredder embedded in the frame, emerging from the bottom in strips.
A post on Banksy's official Instagram account showed the moment - and the shocked reaction of those in the room - with the words ``Going, going, gone...''
Sotheby's - which had noted before the sale that the work's ornate gilded frame was ``an integral element of the artwork chosen by Banksy himself'' - expressed surprise at the incident.
``It appears we just got Banksy-ed,'' said Alex Branczik, head of contemporary European art at the auction house.
The auction house said it was ``in discussion about next steps'' with the buyer. Some art-market watchers have suggested the work could be worth even more in its shredded state.
``We have not experienced this situation in the past . where a painting spontaneously shredded, upon achieving a record for the artist,'' Branczik said. ``We are busily figuring out what this means in an auction context.''
Banksy is not the first artist to deconstruct his own work. In the years after World War II, German-born artist Gustav Metzger pioneered ``auto-destructive art,'' creating paintings using acid that ate away the fabric beneath.
Banksy, who has never disclosed his full identity, began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England, and has become one of the world's best-known artists. His mischievous and often satirical images include two policemen kissing, armed riot police with yellow smiley faces and a chimpanzee with a sign bearing the words ``Laugh now, but one day I'll be in charge.''
He also has a penchant for elaborate pranks.
In 2005, he hung an image of a spear-toting ancient human pushing a shopping cart in the British Museum, where it remained for several days before being discovered. The next year he smuggled a life-sized figure of a Guantanamo Bay detainee into Disneyland, and in 2015 he erected a full-scale dystopian theme park - ``Dismaland'' - by the British seaside.
``Girl With Balloon,'' which depicts a small child reaching up toward a heart-shaped red balloon, was originally stenciled on a wall in east London and has been endlessly reproduced, becoming one of Banksy's best-known images.
- With files from CTV News