Maurizio Cattelan's artwork "Comedian," a banana duct-taped to a wall, was estimated to sell for $1.5 million at auction. Here's a look back at how the banana became a beloved motif in the arts.
Would you buy a banana for millions of dollars? Justin Sun, a Chinese collector and founder of the cryptocurrency platform Tron, just did. He was the winning bidder on an artwork by Italian-born Maurizio Cattelan titled "Comedian" at a Sotheby's auction on Wednesday, which he aquired for $6.2 million (€6.
5 million) — far exceeding the auction house's estimates of $1-1.5 million. No, it's not a banana made of solid gold; it's your regular old edible banana, affixed to the wall with a piece of duct tape.
After the auction, Justin Sun immediately vowed to eat the banana. 'Essential conceptual idea' Cattelan, a conceptual artist known for satirical and provocative work , caused a stir with this piece back at the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair in 2019. The Perrotin gallery sold three editions of it at prices ranging from $120,000 to $150,000.
In a 2021 interview with The Art Newspaper , Cattelan said: "To me, 'Comedian' was not a joke; it was 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.
" The piece was the talk of the art world for a while, with some critics calling it a brilliant co.