Part 2: A Heads-Up To Family, Friends And Myriad Others Who Have Me On Their Christmas Shopping List

As you can see from this headline in the September 22 San Diego Union-Tribune:

Christmas shopping this year is going to be challenging, and early shopping “is a must.”

So I’ve put together some helpful hints about what not to buy, and what to buy, and put under the Christmas tree for me.

Part 1, the what not to buy post, ran on September 29, and here is my eagerly awaited…

Part 2: Buy This

Once upon a time there was a kid in England who was expelled from school, and served time in prison for petty crime.

While in prison the kid had time to mull over his future. He had some artistic talent – sort of – and one day, the lightbulb went on. He realized he could combine art with crime and become a street artist, spreading his graffiti all over streets and walls and bridges, and making himself an all-around “pain in the arse,” as the Brits like to say.

Because graffiti is illegal, the kid knew he had to hide his identity. “I know,” he thought. “I’ll have just one name, like those famous blokes do – Bono and Cher and Fabio!” He chose the name “Banksy” – for reasons I’m still pondering – and to this day his name and identity remain unconfirmed.

That was the early 90s – fast forward to today.

Today, according to Smithsonian Magazine, Banksy is a “graffiti master, painter, activist, filmmaker and all-purpose provocateur,” creating artworks – sort of – that sell for millions.

Like this one:

This is Game Changer, auctioned at Christie’s in March 2021, selling for $23,176,314 and becoming Banksy’s most expensive artwork ever sold in auction.

I think I’ve figured out how Banksy chose his name.

He’s laughing all the way to the bank…See?

Back to my Christmas gift.

Now, no worries.

Banksy’s Game Changer is not on my “Buy This” list!

This Banksy is:

Originally, this piece was called Girl with Balloon and it looked like this:

But when it was up for auction in 2018, that darn provocateur Banksy had a trick up his sleeve.

On auction day, just as the gavel was coming down on Girl with Balloon and the buyer’s $1.4 million bid, Banksy triggered a shredder he’d hidden in the bottom of the artwork’s frame!

The shredder stopped about half-way through…

Chaos ensued!

The result was this:

Banksy renamed it Love is in the Bin, the purchaser paid and took it as is, and according to Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s chairman of Modern and Contemporary Art, Love is in the Bin became “the ultimate Banksy artwork and a true icon of recent art history.”

And not only that, said Branczik,

“Love is in the Bin was born of the most spectacular artistic happening of the 21^st century. When Girl with Balloon ‘self-destructed’ in our saleroom, Banksy sparked a global sensation that has since become a cultural phenomenon.”

Whew! That Branczik is a guy who knows how, when life gives him lemons – to make lemonade.

And now, apparently, that 2018 purchaser has absorbed all she could of her “cultural phenomenon,” and Banksy’s Love is in the Bin is up for auction again, according to this September 3 article on CBS:

But holiday shoppers who are shopping for me, please note:

“Love is in the Bin will be offered at a sale in London on October 14.”

Oh…um…and also…

“The piece has a pre-sale estimate of $5.5 million to $8.3 million.”

What I’m hoping is that this time around, at the auction we’ll have an even more “spectacular artistic happening” and Banksy’s shredder will finish the job.

And this: