No Joke: Viral Duct-Taped Banana Could Command $1.5 Million at Auction

In 2019, the art world descended on Miami Beach for Art Basel. There was plenty of blue-chip art and recognizable names in the contemporary art space. However, the piece everyone was talking about that year was by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, titled Comedian, simply featuring a banana duct-taped to the wall.

During Art Basel's VIP preview, two copies of the artwork were sold for $120,000 a piece by the Perrotin gallery, with only a third one being available by day's end. Keyboard warriors had a field day, deriding Cattelan's work as an example of why the art market is a joke. However, one could argue that it was the artist's intention to highlight precisely that, as well as what makes art, well, art. It's the same question Marcel Duchamp sought to answer more than a century ago when he took a urinal, scribbled "R. Mutt 1917," and placed the work on a pedestal.

Since then, the lore surrounding Comedian has only grown. In 2020, a copy of the work was donated to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. And last year, while on display at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul, college student Noh Huyn-soo ripped the banana off the wall, claiming he was just hungry. It's also been displayed at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, Rome's Palazzo Bonaparte, and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.

Now, the second of the three editions is set to be auctioned by Sotheby's on Wednesday, November 20, for an estimated $1 to $1.5 million. (Yes, cryptocurrency payments are accepted, but probably not MiamiCoin.) The auction will also include two artist proofs and a certificate of authenticity signed by Cattelan.

Cue the outcry!
Look, one could argue that a lot of contemporary art is, well, not great. However, Cattelan is not some two-bit artist. His work was already well-regarded before a banana was affixed to a wall with duct tape.

Arguments that amount to "Well, I could have done that" are pointless. The fact is you didn't, and Cattelan did. Comedian is part of a grand tradition of artists questioning art's value at a time when industrialization has made mass production so easy. Cattelan pushes the limits of the pranksterism art form by the nature that the banana itself rots as time passes and needs to be replaced.

Ultimately, what Comedian does so well is that it sparks discussion and emotion. Saying a piece of art is "nice" might just be the greatest insult. "Nice" is the painting of the bowl of fruit your mother hangs in her dining room. Great art makes you feel something, anything, even if that emotion is disgust.

Now, is it worth paying $1.5 million just to feel something? That's for you and your financial manager to decide.