Banana Duct Taped To A Wall Sold For Over $6 Million
So a banana that was duct-taped to a wall actually sold for over $6 million dollars. Ain’t that some shit.
Meanwhile there’s extremely talented artists out there doing incredible work that never even get their name mentioned amongst the “in crowd” of art collectors and enthusiasts.
That’s the problem with “art” in my opinion. There’s too many incredibly wealthy people with no artistic talent that get to determine what’s hot & what’s not.
The prediction was originally $1.5 million, which is a ridiculously insane estimate for a banana being taped to a wall. To make the whole thing an even bigger joke, I think the guy that bought it, a crypto investor or whatever, just ate the banana.
If that isn’t shitting in the face of “starving artists” and people trying to come up in the art world I don’t know what is.
A banana duct-taped to a wall—the provocative artwork that sparked debates on art market absurdities—sold for a record-breaking $6.24 million USD (including buyer’s premium) at Sotheby’s New York during its New and Contemporary Now auction. Auctioneer Oliver Barker called Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian (2019) “the world’s most expensive banana” after the piece surpassed its $1.5 million USD estimate in 10 minutes of intense bidding.
The buyer, Justin Sun, founder of cryptocurrency platform TRON and an avid art collector, acquired the second edition of Comedian. The work gained fame at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, where its three editions initially sold for $120,000 USD each, with the Guggenheim Museum acquiring the third.
Sotheby’s contemporary art chairman, Grégoire Billault, likened Comedian’s cultural resonance to Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917), crediting digital media for amplifying its impact. Despite criticism labeling it as cynical or simplistic, its unprecedented sale underscores its legacy as an enduring emblem of art world excess.
