Items worth less than $10 may soon fetch upwards of $1.5 million at auction. A banana duct-taped to a wall—also known as Maurizio Cattelan’s artwork titled “Comedian”—will be auctioned by Sotheby’s on Nov. 20. The fruit and household item piece of fine art is expected to rake in between $1 million and $1.5 million, according to the auction house.
Though the purchaser is expected to shell out the big bucks for the items, they won’t actually go home with a duct-taped banana.
“What you buy when you buy Cattelan’s ‘Comedian’ is not the banana itself, but a certificate of authenticity that grants the owner the permission and authority to reproduce this banana and duct tape on their wall as an original artwork by Maurizio Cattelan,” David Galperin, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art, told the Associated Press.
The Inspiration Behind ‘Comedian’
In a 2019 interview with Vulture, Cattelan revealed what inspired his latest work.
“I was trying to imagine something to symbolize my love of New York, and it was difficult… There was a time when the Greek coffee cups were everywhere, and I thought somehow the banana was something that now you can find at every street corner,” he said. “And [my thinking about this] goes on forever from there—but for sure an eggplant, say, would not have been so effective.”
When it comes to the duct tape, Cattelan explained, “In my apartment, the pipes are held together with [duct tape]. I always say that I’d be more concerned if I ran out of that tape than out of toilet paper.”
“Comedian” debuted to viral fame at Art Basel in 2019. Three editions of the unusual artwork sold for up to $150,000, the outlet reported.
“To me, ‘Comedian’ was not a joke; it was a sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value,” Cattelan told The Art Newspaper in 2021. “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.”
According to Galperin, Cattelan has been successful in his quest.
“What Cattelan is really doing is turning a mirror to the contemporary art world and asking questions,” he told the AP, “provoking thought about how we ascribe value to artworks, what we define as an artwork.”
The post Someone May Soon Pay $1.5 Million to Tape a Banana to a Wall appeared first on VICE.
The post Someone May Soon Pay $1.5 Million to Tape a Banana to a Wall appeared first on VICE.
