Chinese mogul pays millions for banana on wall - promises to eat it
A simple banana taped to wall just sold for almost 5 million pounds at Sothebys auction house. The new owner plans to eat it as part of his artistic statement about value in modern art
The art-world got shaken up when Justin Sun paid £4.9m (way-more than expected) for a banana stuck to wall with grey tape. The piece called Comedian by Maurizio Cattelan was sold at Sothebys NY on nov-21; its new owner already said he will eat it
The artwork which first showed up at Miami Beach fair back in 2019 has some strict rules: the banana must be taped exactly 160cm high (which is pretty specific for a fruit installation). The fruit gets switched out when it starts going bad‚ and the whole thing is meant to make people think about what stuff is worth in todays world
- A performance artist ate it in Miami after someone bought it for $120k
- Last year a student in Seoul did the same thing
- The new owner gets a special paper that says its real art
It was not meant as a joke‚ but my way to work inside the system with my own rules
Cattelan who is now in his mid-60s made this piece as his take on art fairs where everything moves super-fast and its all about money. The same artist once made a gold toilet he called America - so hes kind of known for making people think about weird stuff. Sun says hes happy to own it and wants to eat the banana soon as part of his own art thing
