Banana duct-taped to wall fetches $6.2 million at auction
Maurizio Cattelan’s artwork showcasing a banana duct-taped to a wall sold at auction for $6.2million in New York.
The piece, entitled ‘Comedian,’ first went viral in 2019 and has since become mythological in the world of art. The artwork, which was sold at Sotheby’s on November 20th, is one of three editions that Cattelan created in 2019 albeit featuring a different banana. It was initially expected to raise between $1 million and $1.5 million, which is far less than the final bid.
The banana featured in the piece was bought earlier in the day for only 35 cents from a market stall. When the three editions of ‘Comedian’ were first sold in 2019, they fetched between $120,000 and $150,000, which raised eyebrows from the international art community and only bolstered the value of the pieces, as the auction in New York proves.
‘Comedian’ was purchased by Justin Sun, who is involved in cryptocurrency and watched the auction online from his home in Hong Kong. In addition to receiving a banana and a roll of duct tape, Sun will also be given a certificate of authenticity and an instruction manual on replacing the banana when it eventually rots.
In a statement, Sun told Sotheby’s: “This is not just an artwork, it represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community. I believe this piece will inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history.”
Furthermore, Sun revealed that he will eat the banana when it arrives in Hong Kong, explaining that this is his method of “honouring its place in both art history and popular culture”.
Originally, ‘Comedian’ was created by Cattelan to satirise the art community and poke fun at the huge value attached to pieces, but it soon grew into something bigger than he ever could have envisioned. He once said of the project’s message: “On what basis does an object acquire value in the art system?”
During an email interview with the New York Times prior to the auction, Cattelan described the auction at Sotheby’s as the “apex of its career” regarding ‘Comedian’.
Karina Sokolovsky, a Sotheby’s spokesperson, also addressed the appeal of ‘Comedian’ to the cryptocurrency community, adding: “The conceptual nature of the artwork has drawn interest not only from our traditional collecting community but also from the wider crypto community. We’ve received requests from potential bidders to pay with crypto.”
