What’s worth millions, taped to a wall, and destined to rot? Hint: It’s art you can’t hang for long.
Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous duct-taped banana art piece, Comedian, fetched an eye-popping $6.24 million, including fees, at Sotheby’s contemporary art auction in New York on Wednesday night.
The sale saw six bidders battle it out before Jen Hua, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s and chairman of Sotheby’s China, placed the winning bid on Tron founder Justin Sun’s behalf.
The artwork shattered its $1.5 million pre-sale estimate and became its place as one of the most expensive—and controversial—art pieces (or should we say fruit) ever.
Sotheby’s accepted crypto payments for this sale as the market is seeing new heights following Donald Trump’s re-election, with Bitcoin (BTC) soaring to $97,000 on Wednesday.
The crypto entrepreneur, Sun, claimed the artwork in a heated five-minute bidding war that involved six other participants.
“This is not just an artwork; it represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community,” Sun wrote on X, sharing his “banana” experience.
He announced plans to eat the banana in the coming days as part of what he described as “honoring its place in both art history and popular culture.”
The artwork comprises a real banana affixed to a wall with duct tape, accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and instructions for replacing the fruit as it inevitably decays.
During the heated auction, Sotheby’s auctioneer Oliver Barker quipped, “These are the words I never thought I’d say, ‘$5 million for a banana.’”
The banana’s rise to infamy in the art scene began in 2019 when one sold for $120,000 at Art Basel. The work became a viral sensation after performance artist David Datuna ate the banana, dubbing his act “Hungry Artist.”
Since then, Comedian has sparked conversations about the absurdity and subjectivity of art valuation.
Justin Sun founded the blockchain platform Tron in 2017. In December 2021, he stepped down as CEO of the Tron Foundation, claiming he had transferred control of the project to Tron DAO, a non-profit decentralized autonomous organization.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
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