Maurizio Cattelan’s artwork, comedian, featuring a banana duct-taped to a wall, fetched $6.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York, according to the BBC on Thursday.
Compared to its initial pre-sale estimate, this price is four times greater.
Justin Sun, a Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur, outbid six other bidders for the piece and won.
“I will personally eat the banana in the coming days as part of this unique artistic experience,” Sun stated in a statement following the sale.
The 2019 Art Basel Miami Beach premiere of Comedian, created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, caused a stir as attendees attempted to determine if the lone yellow fruit attached to a white wall using silver duct tape was a joke or a sardonic critique of dubious art collector standards. Another artist once removed the banana from the wall and consumed it.
The artwork was so popular that it had to be taken off from display. However, the gallery managing sales at the time reported that three editions brought in between $120,000 and $150,000 every time.
The creator of the cryptocurrency network TRON, Justin Sun, has now paid more than 40 times that higher price point at the Sotheby’s auction five years later. In other words, Sun bought an authenticity certificate that allows him to duct-tape a banana to a wall and call it Comedian.
At the crowded Sotheby’s auction, the sculpture garnered a lot of attention. Two handlers with white gloves stood at either side of the banana, and others in the crammed room held up their phones to take pictures.
Oliver Barker, the auctioneer, remarked, “Don’t let it slip away,” as the bidding began at $800,000 and quickly increased to $2 million, $3 million, $4 million, and more.
“Don’t pass up this chance,” Barker said. “These are words I’ve never thought I’d say: Five million dollars for a banana.”
The buyer paid around $1 million in auction house fees, which were not included in the $5.2 million final hammer price that was disclosed in the room.
Cattelan is regarded by Sotheby’s as “among Contemporary Art’s most brilliant provocateurs.”
The auction house described Comedian as having “persistently disrupted the art world’s status quo in meaningful, irreverent, and often controversial ways.”
The transaction took place the day after a painting by Belgian surrealist René Magritte achieved a record price of $121.2 million at another auction.
The Empire of Light, a haunting street scene at night beneath a light blue sky during the day, went up for sale Tuesday as part of Christie’s sale of interior designer Mica Ertegun’s collection. Ertegun passed away last year at the age of 97.
Magritte now joins the group of artists whose pieces have sold for over $100 million at auction thanks to the sale. According to market research firm Artprice, Magritte is the 16th member of the club, which also includes Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and Leonardo da Vinci.
Magritte made 17 oil paintings of the same scenario, including The Empire of Light, which was completed in 1954. Christie’s Americas chairman Marc Porter referred to the sale as “a historic moment in our sale room.”
The auction house costs were included in the $121.2 million price. The buyer, whose identity was kept a secret, was a telephone bidder.
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