Remember that viral artwork of a banana duct taped to a wall? Well, it sold for $6.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction, and it’s in a crypto billionaire’s digestive system now.
34-year-old Justin Sun was the winning bidder of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian,” which made headlines in 2019 for its concept. Several iterations of the piece (I mean, how hard can it be to source a banana and some tape?) have sold between $120,000 to $150,000. It’s clear the price has skyrocketed, with Sun’s beefy bid going up against several other interested art (or fruit) lovers. Included in Sun’s bid is the rights to the piece, meaning he can recreate it and sell it himself if he chooses.
At a press conference after winning the artwork, Sun knew what he had to do and ate it. As for what a $6.2 million banana tastes like? “It’s much better than other bananas,” he said. “It’s really quite good.”
Amid his costly stunt, he drew parallels to the piece and NFTs, saying, “Most of its objects and ideas exist as (intellectual property) and on the internet, as opposed to something physical.”
And if you were wondering, someone ripped the banana off the wall and ate it at Miami Art Basel in 2019. However, that doesn’t mean it’s $120,000 down the gullet. The piece’s worth is in the concept, not the physical work according to the artist, and buyers all received a certificate proving they owned it.
While the piece is worth what people are willing to pay for it, the banana itself was only worth 25 cents. In an interview with The New York Times, New York fruit vendor Shah Alam reacted to the exorbitant price tag of the fruit he sold. “I am a poor man,” Alam, 74, said. “I have never had this kind of money; I have never seen this kind of money.”
To be fair, Sun caught wind of Alam’s response, which he called “poignant.” He pledged to purchase 100,000 bananas from Alam’s stall as “a celebration of the beautiful connection between everyday life and art,” with the intent to distribute the fruit worldwide.
