A piece of art made of a banana taped to a wall has been sold for $6.2 million to a man who says he will eat the main feature of the piece.
The work is Comedian, by Maurizio Cattelan, which consists of a banana duct-taped in place for display.
It was auctioned by Sotheby’s on Wednesday evening in New York and was bought by $5.2 million (rising to $6.2 million with fees) by cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun.
Sun said, in a post on X (formerly Twitter): “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.”
Cattelan first made the work in 2019 producing three versions, two were sold for $120,000 each. A third is on display at the Guggenheim Museum.
Cattelan, who was born in Italy in 1960, joins a long line of conceptual artists whose work questions what art is and what the value of art is.
He said in 2021: “It was a sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value. 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.”
In 1917, French artist Marcel Duchamp exhibited a porcelain urinal as a work of art, saying it achieved that status “by the artist’s act of choice.”
Although the original urinal has long been lost, versions of it have been sold a number of times, including a 1999 sale for $1.7 million.
In one sense Cattelan’s work doesn’t exist.
The banana and the duct tape used to attach it to the wall are parts that can be replaced. The new owner has bought the instructions on how to reassemble these two parts if he so desires.
Sun, 34, founded TRON: a cryptocurrency/blockchain company. He has previously won auctions to dine with Warren Buffett and fly on the Blue Origin space craft (though he did not in the end take the flight).
In 2016, Cattelan’s realistic but child-sized sculpture of Adolf Hitler, called Him, was sold by Christie’s for $17.2 million.
That’s the current record for his work, and easily exceeded the $10 million to $12 million estimate put on the sale.
“Comedian” was auctioned on Wednesday night with a $1 million to $1.5 million estimate.
The main substance of the work is the paperwork, including detailed display instructions and a certificate of authenticity.
“I never thought I’d say ‘$5 million for a banana’,” Sotheby’s Olivia Barker said as she closed the sale.
The banana in question, which Sun has said he will eat, was bought in New York for 35cents. He follows in the footsteps of David Datuna, a New York-based Georgian performance artist who grabbed and ate the banana when the work was on show in Basel, Switzerland in 2019. The banana in the exhibit was also eaten at a show in Republic of Korea by a student last year.
