Girl with Balloon: the piece that shredded itself

|The Banksy Shop
Girl with Balloon: the piece that shredded itself

A child reaches after a heart-shaped balloon that is already out of reach. That is the whole image, and it is probably the most recognisable thing Banksy has made.

From a wall to a poll

It first went up on a London wall in the early 2000s, in the same period as the rats and the policemen. Years later it was voted the nation's favourite artwork, beating a field of gallery pieces that had rather more paperwork behind them.

The auction

In 2018 a framed version sold at auction and then, seconds after the hammer, began feeding itself through a shredder concealed in the frame. It stopped halfway. The half-shredded object was renamed and went on to sell for many times the original price — a joke about the art market that the art market immediately bought.

Why it still works on a t-shirt

Because it is legible at any size. Two shapes and one colour: you can read it from across a room, which is exactly what a stencil is designed for.