Viral banana artwork back on sale, could fetch around P87.6 million at auction
Maurizio Cattelan’s viral artwork showing a banana duct-taped to a wall is coming to auction—and it’s expected to fetch around $1.5 million (P87.6 million).
In a press release, world-renowned auction house Sotheby’s announced that it will offer one of the three editions of the creation dubbed Comedian for the first time at the upcoming The Now and Contemporary Evening Auction.
It said the work will go international, starting from a one-day exhibition in New York in late October. It will be followed by stops in London, Paris, Milan, Hong Kong, Dubai, Taipei, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and then back to New York again in November.
CNN International reported that the winning bidder will get a certificate of authenticity and installation instructions along with a roll of duct tape and one banana. Sotheby’s confirmed to the media outlet that they are not originals. This is because it’s a “conceptual artwork,” per its spokesperson, and that the actual physical materials “are replaced with every installation."
Cattelan, in a previous interview with The Art Newspaper, said that the piece “was not a joke” but a "a sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value.”
"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,” he continued.
Cattelan made the Comedian artwork in an edition of three, with each of them initially priced around $120,000 (P7 million).
The creation went viral in 2019 after performance artist David Datuna ate the banana and called it “delicious."
The same incident happened in 2023. It was eaten by a college student while it was on display at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul, Korea. When asked why he did it, he said he was hungry and that he thought the act of eating it was a form of art as well.
The Italian artist is known for his hyper-realistic sculptures and paintings, incorporated with “humorous and cynical anecdotes” that “make us face the uncomfortable truth with a rude and shameless attitude and overturns the basis of our perception in an instant.” Hence, the creation of conceptual art, the Comedian.