>He got his name in all the papers.

That's really great for up and coming artist.. Banksy..

If anyone’s upset about it being destroyed, I’m offering to draw new copies for 1 pound per piece. 5 for 4 pounds. For an extra 50p, I’ll even shred each one in a pretentious manner.

How does he profit from that?

The increase in Banksy's cultural cachet means that his next pieces sold at auction will likely be valued much higher than they would have been if this had not been in all the papers.

I can't say it's not a brilliant piece of art. It's quite similar to Duchamp's ready-mades[1] in that it's a critique of art itself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)[1]

Hia other stuff will sell for more because his name is better known? There is almost always profit to be made from being in the news.

That might be the profit in and of itself.

I bet Thomas Pynchon isn't just in it for the money. He probably likes the idea of people enjoying his books, too.

It's called PR

He bought it by proxy.