 "The bizarre case of a duct-taped banana that fetched $6.2 million at New York art auction")
Step into any supermarket, and you can easily grab a banana for under a dollar. But a banana duct-taped to a wall? That just fetched a jaw-dropping $6.2 million.
Believe it or not.
On Wednesday, Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s artwork Comedian—a banana taped to a wall—made waves at a contemporary art auction in New York, when it was declared sold with a shocking price tag.
The third edition of the artwork, became the centrepiece of the auction, with cryptocurrency mogul Justin Sun placing the winning bid. The final price soared to 40 times the original estimate, making the simple duct-taped banana one of the most talked-about pieces in recent art history.
Here’s what you need to know about this eye-catching artwork and why it attracted such a high bid.
About the banana artwork
This is not the first time the ‘Comedian’ has grabbed headlines. When it debuted in 2019 as an edition of three fruits at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair, it became a much-discussed sensation.
Was it a prank? A commentary on the state-of-the-art world? The festival-goers tried to make out whether the single yellow piece of fruit bound to a white wall with silver duct tape, priced at US$120,000, was a joke or cheeky commentary on questionable standards among art collectors.
However, at one point, an artist took the banana off the wall and ate it.
This spawned a copycat stunt in May 2023, in which a South Korean art student removed and ate the banana from an edition of Comedian on display in Seoul.
“The student told the museum he ate it because he was hungry,” a gallery spokesperson told CNN after the incident.
But it is much more than a banana stuck to the wall for Cattelan, who told Art Newspaper in 2021 that it was “not a joke,” but rather a “sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value”.
“At art fairs, speed and business reign, so I saw it like this: if I had to be at a fair, I could sell a banana like others sell their paintings. I could play within the system, but with my rules,” he said.
The Italian artist is popular for satirical pieces that challenge prevalent cultures, his previous works include a solid gold, fully functioning toilet titled ‘America’.
In a press release announcing the sale for the third time, Sotheby’s New York head of contemporary art David Galperin, described Comedian as a “defiant work of pure genius.”
Who is the buyer?
In a competitive and fast-moving auction in which cryptocurrency bids were accepted, bidding started at $800,000 and quickly leapt beyond the initial estimates.
In a fast-paced auction that accepted cryptocurrency bids, the starting price was $800,000. However, it soon skyrocketed beyond expectations on Wednesday.
According to AP, the bidding surged to $2 million within minutes, then quickly escalated to $3 million, $4 million, and beyond. The auctioneer, Oliver Barker, quipped, “Don’t let it slip away. Don’t miss this opportunity. These are words I’ve never thought I’d say: Five million dollars for a banana.”
The final hammer price was $5.2 million (plus $1 million auction house charges) by Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun.
Founder of the cryptocurrency platform TRON, Sun won the bid and paid more than 40 times that higher price point at the Sotheby’s auction.
“This is not just an artwork, it represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community,” Sun said in a statement to Sotheby’s. “I believe this piece will inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history.”
In return, Sun will receive a banana and a roll of duct tape, as well as a certificate of authenticity and instructions on how to install the work – including how to replace the banana, should he want to.
The entrepreneur also revealed his own plans for the artwork, stating he intends to follow tradition. “Additionally, in the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honouring its place in both art history and popular culture.”
With input from agencies
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