En exhibitor in 2019 at Art Basel Miami, under the title Comedian, a simple banana purchased at a local market and attached to the wall of the Perrotin gallery stand with a piece of thick silver adhesive tape, Maurizio Cattelan had created a buzz. Then the start of a scandal when its gallery owner announced having sold two first copies (there are three, plus two “artist’s proofs”) for 120,000 dollars (113,907 euros), the third for 140,000 – a sort of bonus to the two fastest buyers. Daily life New York Post then headlined: “The art world is going crazy…” He will have to show imagination: one of the copies in question was sold Wednesday evening at Sotheby's in New York for 5.2 million dollars (4.7 million euros), “hammer price” as they say during auctions, a formula which now rings truer, or 6.2 million dollars (5.8 million euros) with costs.
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Seven bidders competed for it. Estimated by the auction house between 1 and 1.5 million dollars – which means that they already had buyers in this range, which nevertheless represents ten times its initial price –, priced at 800,000 dollars (759,000 euros), the fruit is assembled in six minutes until the final award. Its new owner is the Chinese Justin Sun. Based in Hong Kong, founder of the TRON platform, he made his fortune in cryptocurrencies, which have appreciated significantly since the election of Donald Trump.
Sell virtual
This is not the billionaire's first foray into the extreme avant-garde of the art market: already in 2021, he was the underbidder for the sale at Christie's of Everydays : the First 5000 Daysa work by Beeple, real name Mike Winkelmann, an American digital artist. Guaranteed by an NFT (Non Fungible Token), a sort of digital certificate of authenticity, the work, which is a collage of images already posted online by the artist, had reached the incredible sum of 69.34 million dollars (65.83 million euros). So, even though he didn't win the auction, Justin Sun showed that he can already rise high.
For what reason? Mr. Sun himself explained it, in a message posted on X after the sale: “I am delighted to announce that I have successfully acquired the iconic work of Maurizio Cattelan, Comedianfor $6.2 million. It's not just a work of art; it represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community. » Because, as for Everydays : the First 5000 Daysthe value of Comedian does not reside in the object – Justin Sun has also announced his intention to eat the banana, in which he would not be the first, two people having already done so without authorization – but in the certificate of authenticity that accompanies it (as well as assembly instructions, etc.). It is not an NFT (non-fungible token, or “non-fungible tokens” in French), but a paper version, however the spirit is the same. Both sell virtual. It is a principle as old as conceptual art and which can even be traced back to Marcel Duchamp, or even further if we consider that what gives value to a work is the notoriety of the artist. This is what means that an almost entirely restored painting, but attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, can be sold for 450 million dollars.
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