The Sotheby’s Icons Exhibition includes Banksy’s shredded artwork.
Banksy’s iconic self-shredding Girl With Balloon painting is coming to the St Regis Saadiyat Island Resort in Abu Dhabi. Running from 2 to 6 December 2025, it will be part of the Sotheby’s Icons Exhibition and free to attend.
The Sotheby’s Icons Exhibition will feature a number of the world’s most respected and valuable artworks, spotlighting some of the global auction house’s highest-profile pieces from the last 60 years.
Highlights include Banksy’s famous self-shredding Girl With Balloon, Gustav Klimt’s Dame mit Fächer, and Jane Birkin’s Original Hermès Birkin. These works are among nine legendary pieces on display. They will be available to view in Abu Dhabi for a limited period before moving to the New York exhibition.
The exhibition coincides with Sotheby’s Abu Dhabi Collectors’ Week, which will feature over Dhs550 million ($150 million) of jewellery, watches, handbags, cars, and real estate in a one-off luxury auction.
Banksy’s Girl With Balloon is considered his most famous work to date. The artwork famously shredded itself in 2018, seconds after being sold at auction for $1.3 million. The self-shredding stunt increased its value, with the shredded version selling for $25 million in 2021, setting a new record for a Banksy piece.
Jane Birkin’s Original Hermès Birkin remains one of the most iconic and desired handbags of all time. A piece sold for over $10 million in Paris earlier this year.
Gustav Klimt painted Dame mit Fächer as his final portrait before his death, and it sold for €108.4 million. This set the record for the most valuable artwork ever sold at auction in Europe.
Art critics celebrate Piet Mondrian’s Composition No. II as a masterwork of geometric composition. The piece achieved the highest price ever paid for a work by Mondrian when it sold at auction in 1983.
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GO: Visit www.sothebys.com for more information.