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It’s been five years since a banana duct-taped to a wall caused a stir at Art Basel before selling for more than $100,000, which seemed like a pretty steep price at the time. However, it has nothing on what the same piece fetched at an auction where it absolutely obliterated the estimated amount it would go for.
There are plenty of artists who pride themselves on their ability to rile up their peers and the general public while sparking discussions about what truly constitutes “art.”
That includes Maurizio Cattelan, the self-taught Italian known for stunts like a show consisting entirely of another artist’s work he stole from a gallery and a fully functioning toilet made of solid gold that was temporarily installed at the Guggenheim and eventually ended up at the center of a heist.
In 2019, Cattelan set up shop at Art Basel in Miami and became the talk of the showcase thanks to “Comedian,” which was literally just a banana duct-taped to a wall. He ultimately sold two certified editions for $120,000 a pop, which were accompanied by a diagram concerning the proper way to mount a piece of fruit that needs to be replaced an a regular basis thanks to the inherent nature of bananas.
Last month, Sotheby’s announced one of the sanctioned versions of “Comedian” would be auctioned off in a sale that also boasted works by Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It estimated the work—which, and I can not stress this enough, is literally just a banana duct-taped to a wall—would sell for between $1 million and $1.5 million.
That firmly did not end up being the case by the time the bidding came to a close on Wednesday, as NPR reports “Comedian” was auctioned off for a whopping $6.2 million (“only” $5.2 million if you exclude the $1 million auction house fee) in the wake of brief bidding war where Justin Sun, the founder of the TRON cryptocurrency, emerged victorious.
Sun said he was interested in the piece because it “represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community” before announcing he’ll become at least the third person to take a bite of out of “Comedian,” adding “I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honoring its place in both art history and popular culture.”
What a world.