Did the art world just get Banksy-ed or did Banksy get out Banksy-ed by the art world?

The world's most famous unknown artist, Banksy, revealed how he pulled off his latest prank on the high art society by building a shredder into the frame of his piece Girl with a Balloon. As soon as the gavel went down at a Sotheby's auction with a sale price of over a million dollars an alarm went off and the painting self destructed through the shredder.

The art world was stunned by the destruction of the piece, but did Banksy know the artwork would immediately become worth nearly 50% more once the stunt went worldwide? We many never know.

He did leave one clue in an Instagram post captioning a video of the painting being destroyed with this quote:

The urge to destroy is also a creative urge — Picasso

He then shared a video that begins with the words:

A few years ago, I secretly built a shredder into a painting ... in case it was ever put up for auction.

No one knows for sure, if Banksy knew the price of the painting would go up, but certainly people have a lot of theories and ideas.

The stunt definitely had people talking.

There are a lot of theories out there.

We may never know the truth and that is half the fun.

H/T: Indy100, The Independent