‘The world’s most expensive banana’ – Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian fetches $6.2m at Sotheby’s New York on Tuesday
Collector crypto investor Justin Sun vowed that he would immediately eat the banana.
The most talked-about lot of the New York auction season, the duct-taped banana by Maurizio Cattelan, sold for a hammer price of $5.2m ($6.2m with fees) at Sotheby’s New York after a seven-minute bidding war.
Comedian (2019), which consists of a banana attached to a wall with silver duct tape, came to the block Wednesday (20 November) at Sotheby’s The Now and Contemporary auction.
The winning bid far exceeded the auction house’s $1m to $1.5m estimate.
Comedian “represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community”, Sun said in a statement through Sotheby’s after purchasing the lot.
“I believe this piece will inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history.”
Sun plans to eat the banana, he added, as a way of “honouring its place in both art history and popular culture”.
