Up for sale on Wednesday, November 20 at a price of $800,000 by Sotheby’s (New York), the work “Comedian” signed by the Italian Maurizio Cattelan found a buyer, for $6.2 million.
This is not a simple fruit. This Wednesday, November 20, “Comedian,” the banana taped to the wall created by conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, was sold at auction by Sotheby’s in New York. And the final price of the sale aroused the astonishment of observers.
Entitled “Comedian”, the work found a buyer for 6.2 million dollars (5.9 million euros). An amount quickly reached, going from 800,000 dollars (759,744 euros) to its sale price. As a reminder, the banana was estimated between 1 million and 1.5 million (949,681 and 1.4 million euros).
Justin Sun, founder of the cryptocurrency platform Tron, would be the buyer, according to a press release from Sotheby’s.
“Eat the banana”
“It’s not just art. “It represents a cultural phenomenon that creates bridges between the worlds of art, memes and the cryptocurrency community,” he said, adding that he wanted to “eat the banana to make it a unique artistic experience and honor its place both in the history of art and popular culture.
It had already caused a lot of talk in 2019 for having been sold for more than 100,000 euros.
Twitter, Instagram, the cover of the New York Post, “Comedian” is undoubtedly one of Maurizio Cattelan’s most controversial works. The Italian artist would have liked to pay homage to pop art through his work which “initially was to be a sculpture in the shape of a banana”. “He took the fruit on each of his trips to his hotel room for inspiration. He carried out several tests: first in resin, then in bronze, and in painted bronze (before) finally returning to the initial idea of a real banana.
