'Not just an artwork': Duct-taped banana auction flabbergasts art world

A piece of conceptual art consisting of a simple banana, duct-taped to a wall, sold for $6.2 million at an auction in New York on Wednesday, with the winning bid coming from a prominent cryptocurrency entrepreneur.

“Comedian,” by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, was a phenomenon when it debuted in 2019 at Art Basel Miami Beach, as festivalgoers tried to make out whether the single yellow piece of fruit affixed to a white wall with silver duct tape was a joke or cheeky commentary on questionable standards among art collectors. At one point, another artist took the banana off the wall and ate it.

The piece attracted so much attention that it had to be withdrawn from view. But three editions sold for between $120,000 and $150,000, according to the gallery handling sales at the time.

Five years later, Justin Sun, founder of cryptocurrency platform TRON, has now paid more than 40 times that higher price point at the Sotheby’s auction. Or, more accurately, Sun purchased a certificate of authenticity that gives him the authority to duct-tape a banana to a wall and call it “Comedian.”

The piece attracted heavy attention at the busy auction at Sotheby's, with attendees in the crowded room holding up phones to take photos as two handlers wearing white gloves stood at both sides of the banana.

Bidding started at $800,000 and within minutes shot up to $2 million, then $3 million, then $4 million, and higher, as the auctioneer, Oliver Barker, joked “Don't let it slip away.”

“Don’t miss this opportunity," Barker said. “These are words I've never thought I'd say: Five million dollars for a banana.”

The final hammer price announced in the room was $5.2 million, which didn't include the about $1 million in auction house fees, paid by the buyer.

In a statement, Sun said the piece “represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community.” But he said the latest version of “Comedian" won't last long.

“Additionally, in the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honoring its place in both art history and popular culture,” Sun said.

Sotheby’s calls Cattelan “among Contemporary Art’s most brilliant provocateurs.”

“He has persistently disrupted the art world’s status quo in meaningful, irreverent, and often controversial ways,” the auction house said in a description of “Comedian.”

Reactions to the sale

The billionaire Justin Sun, who bought the transitory art piece, called Cattalan's duct-taped banana "not just an artwork; it represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community."

The auction house that sold "the world's most notorious banana", Sotheby's in New York, had expected a more modest price –– still out of most people's reach –– ahead of the sale, suggesting it may go for $1-1.5 million at auction.

Yet come November, the bidding war escalated to unforeseen heights -– it only took six minutes of "heated bidding" before the banana was sold to the Chinese collector and cryptocurrency platform founder Sun.

The sale came a day after a painting by the Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte sold for $121.2 million, a record for the artist, at a separate auction.

“The Empire of Light,” an eerie nighttime streetscape below a pale blue daytime sky, sold Tuesday as part of Christie’s sale of the collection of interior designer Mica Ertegun, who died last year at age 97.

The sale lifts Magritte into the ranks of artists whose works have gone for more than $100 million at auction. Magritte is the 16th member of the club, which also includes Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, according to the market analyst firm Artprice.

“The Empire of Light,” executed in 1954, was one of 17 versions of the same scene that Magritte painted in oil. Marc Porter, chairman of Christie’s Americas, called the sale “a historic moment in our saleroom.”

The $121.2 million price included the auction house’s fees. The buyer was a telephone bidder whose identity was not disclosed.