The enigmatic artist’s “Girl With Balloon” sold for $1.4 million before being shredded by a rigged frame at Sotheby’s auction house in London on Friday.

LONDON -

The British road craftsman Banksy pulled off one of his most fabulous tricks on Friday night, when one of his trademark compositions appeared to self-destruct at Sotheby's in London subsequent to offering for $1.4 million at closeout.

The work, "Young lady With Balloon," a 2006 shower paint on canvas, was the last parcel of Sotheby's "Frieze Week" evening contemporary craftsmanship deal. After rivalry between two phone bidders, it was pounded around the salesperson Oliver Barker for 1 million pounds, in excess of three times the gauge and another closeout high for a work exclusively by the craftsman, as indicated by Sotheby's.

"At that point we heard a caution go off," Morgan Long, the head of craftsmanship speculation at the London-based warning firm Fine Art Group, who was sitting in the front line of the room, said in a meeting on Saturday. "Everybody turned round, and the photo had snuck past its edge."

The artistic creation, mounted on a divider near a line of Sotheby's staff individuals, had been destroyed, or possibly somewhat destroyed, by a remote-control component on the back of the edge.