It’s a lot to ask of a banana and a strip of duct tape. But the announcement late last week that Sotheby’s would be offering Maurizio Cattelan’s firestorm-provoking 2019 artwork, Comedian, in its November sales with a $1 million estimate, made me think that specialist David Galperin might have just picked the lock on what’s holding the art market back. “In a moment where there is seemingly so much anxiety about the market,” Galperin told me on Friday, “it is an object that brings a great deal of humor and levity.” The piece also brings a great deal of controversy. And, if it sells for a great deal more than the already goggling million-dollar estimate, it could bring back some heat and FOMO to the art market. That’s a desperately missing ingredient right now.
The act of auctioning a set of instructions for mounting a banana to the wall with a strip of duct tape (at a 45º angle) raises a number of deliberately provocative questions: What is art? Why is it valuable? (“It’s a work that addresses the idea of value,” Galperin says.) Controversy, of course, is a magnet for publicity and crowds. Which is why Sotheby’s, eager for some good publicity—or at least some media attention—is sending the work on a nine-city tour. “It’s an unparalleled effort,” Galperin joked, referring to the supposedly complicated logistics of the banana making one-day appearances in London, Paris, Milan, Hong Kong, Dubai, Taipei, Tokyo, and Los Angeles before it takes up a 12-day residence in New York. “It’s very expensive to ship this around the world.”
