Bangkok Post - Duct-taped banana sells for $6.2 million

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Comedian , a sculpture by the artist Maurizio Cattelan, consisting of a piece of duct tape and a banana stuck to a wall, has sold for US$6.2 million at Sotheby’s in New York after more than six minutes of fierce bidding. The buyer is China-born crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, the auction house confirmed.' /> <meta property="fb:app_id" content="476233699157604" /> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"> <meta name="twitter:site" content="@BangkokPostNews"> <meta name="twitter:creator" content=""> <meta id="page_tw_og_title" name="twitter:title" content="Duct-taped banana sells for $6.2 million"> <meta id="page_tw_og_desc" name="twitter:description" content='NEW YORK — Arguably the most famous artwork of the past decade has found a new buyer. Comedian , a sculpture by the artist Maurizio Cattelan, consisting of a piece of duct tape and a banana stuck to a wall, has sold for US$6.2 million at Sotheby’s in New York after more than six minutes of fierce bidding. 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The buyer is China-born crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, the auction house confirmed.<\/p>","mainEntityOfPage":"https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/arts-and-entertainment/2905732/the-duct-taped-banana-sells-for-6-2-million-at-sothebys-in-new-york","url":"https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/arts-and-entertainment/2905732/the-duct-taped-banana-sells-for-6-2-million-at-sothebys-in-new-york","inLanguage":"en","author":[{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Person","url":"https://search.bangkokpost.com/search/result_advanced?category=news&columnistName=Bloomberg+News","name":"Bloomberg News"}],"dateModified":"2024-11-21T14:16:05+07:00","datePublished":"2024-11-21T11:58:00+07:00","headline":"Duct-taped banana sells for $6.2 million","articleBody":"In an interview with Bloomberg following the sale, Sun said he was considering paying with the cryptocurrency he founded, Tron (TRX), but failing that with Bitcoin, which hit a record $95,000 at the time of the auction. (The lot was the only one of the nights for which Sotheby’s would accept payments in crypto.)\"First of all, I'm a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, but I also buy a lot of art,\" says Sun, referencing his purchases of Picasso and Warhol and Giacometti. \"I found about Comedian a month ago, and I loved the idea,\" he continues. \"It echoes with our idea of decentralisation in the crypto world, because this is a conceptual artwork—it's impossible for you to destroy the artwork itself.\"The work, which is one of an edition of three (plus two artist's proofs), carried a presale estimate of $1 million to $1.5 million, though advance buzz predicted (accurately, as it turns out) it would sell for several times that amount. \"It's an artwork that's a perfect representation of the times that we're living in, which celebrates spectacle,\" said adviser Rob Teeters a few hours before the sale.The piece premiered in 2019 at Art Basel Miami Beach, when it was displayed in the booth of the Perrotin gallery. It immediately caused a stir, with onlookers growing so thick that the gallery was forced to take it down for crowd control. All three works from the edition sold for $120,000 to $150,000. One was subsequently donated to the Guggenheim; the other two remain in private hands.It did not take long for Cattelan's duct-taped banana to become a world-famous meme, appearing on the front page of the New York Post (\"Bananas!\"), posted by celebrities and turned into hats, knockoffs and other merchandise.It is also considered by many in the art world as a legitimate work of fine art. The New York Times' Jason Farago wrote a lengthy defence of the piece, arguing that the work \"is a sculpture, one that continues Mr Cattelan's decades-long reliance on suspension to make the obvious seem ridiculous and to deflate and defeat the pretensions of earlier art.\" Comedian, Farago went on, is a continuation of \"Cattelan's willingness to implicate himself within the economic, social and discursive systems that structure how we see and what we value.\"The buyer on Wednesday night was purchasing a certificate of authenticity that gave them the right to manifest the piece as an official artwork, though Sotheby's says they will in fact also receive a banana and a roll of duct tape as a sort of starter kit. (The work also comes with a detailed instruction manual for how it should be presented.)A man poses for a photo next to a banana attached with duct-tape that replaces the artwork 'Comedian' by the artist Maurizio Cattelan, which was eaten by David Datuna, in Miami Beach, Florida, on Dec 7, 2019. (Photo: Reuters)@SpaceX @Sothebys I am Justin Sun, and I’m excited to share that I have successfully acquired Maurizio Cattelan’s iconic work, Comedian for $6.2 million. This is not just an artwork; it represents a cultural phenomenon… pic.twitter.com\/lAj1RE6y0CAs the lot came up, attendees in the packed auction room almost uniformly raised their phones to take videos. Auctioneer Oliver Barker began bidding at $800,000, and at least two phone bidders, two online, as well as three in the room, quickly pushed the work past its high estimate in under 20 seconds. (The puns flew — \"don't let it slip away,” said Barker.) By the end, it came down one online bidder competing against one phone bidder. Finally, the hammer came down at $5.2 million; with auction house fees known as premiums, the final price was $6.24 million. Lofty as the result might be, it failed to eclipse the auction record for Cattelan’s work, set in 2016 at Christie's New York for a sculpture of a kneeling Adolf Hitler (Him, 2001), which sold for $17.2 million. Comedian is not the first sale to grab headlines during this year’s mega November auction week in New York. On Tuesday a painting by the surrealist René Magritte sold for just over $121 million at Christie's, setting a world record for the artist and injecting some much-needed heat into an otherwise lacklustre art market.\"It's drawing attention to the market,\" Teeters said of Comedian's sale. \"Is it adding to the health of the market? No, it's not.\"Sun plans to display the Cattelan in his Hong Kong apartment, but unlike his paintings and sculpture, he adds, \"it's very easy to bring with me—that's the beauty of it.\" Sun says he's willing to loan the work to \"any serious players in the industry who want to borrow our artwork to display it anywhere. If Elon Musk wants it, I'll let him put it on the spaceship to Mars,\" Sun concludes. \"The banana goes to Mars.\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t","articleSection":"Life","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Bangkok Post","logo": {"@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://static.bangkokpost.com/v3/assets/images/logo/logo-bangkokpost.png"}},"copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https://www.bangkokpost.com/#publisher"},"sourceOrganization": {"@type": "Organization","name": "Bangkok Post","url": "https://www.bangkokpost.com"},"copyrightYear":2024} </script> <script type="application/ld+json"> {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","name":"Life section in Bangkok Post","itemListElement":[{ "@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"ListItem","name":"Home","position":1,"item":"https://www.bangkokpost.com"},{ "@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ListItem","name":"Life","position":2,"item":"https://www.bangkokpost.com/life"},{ "@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ListItem","name":"Arts & Entertainment","position":3,"item":"https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/arts-and-entertainment"}]} </script>  <meta name="lead:category1" content="Life"> <meta name="lead:category2" content="Life/arts-and-entertainment"> <meta name="lead:author" content="Bloomberg News "> <meta name="lead:published_at" content="2024-11-21T11:58:00+07:00"> <meta name="lead:modified_at" content="2024-11-21T14:16:05+07:00"> <meta name="lead:keywords" content="art,banana,duct tape,auction,new york,comedian"> <meta name="lead:url" content="https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/arts-and-entertainment/2905732"> <meta name="lead:full_url" content="https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/arts-and-entertainment/2905732/the-duct-taped-banana-sells-for-6-2-million-at-sothebys-in-new-york"> <meta name="lead:ingredient" content="article">  <script> (function(w, d, s, l, i) { w[l] = w[l] || []; w[l].push({ 'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(), event: 'gtm.js' }); var f = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j = d.createElement(s), dl = l != 'dataLayer' ? 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class="comment-icon-fixed"> <a title="Duct-taped banana sells for $6.2 million" href="javascript:void(0)" class="open-comment" onclick="g_comment.show_comment();" class="open-comment"><i class="icon-comment"></i></a> <label>27</label> </li> </ul> </div>  </div> </div>  <div class="boxaudio-title">Listen to this article</div> <div class="boxaudioplayer"> <div class="player"> <audio id="audio" title="Duct-taped banana sells for $6.2 million" src="/media/content_speech/20241121/2905732_20241121-120315.mp3"></audio> <div class="btnn play"><i class="fa fa-play" aria-hidden="true"></i> Play</div> <div class="btnn pause"><i class="fa fa-pause" aria-hidden="true"></i> Pause</div> <div class="wave-wrapper"> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> <div class="close-animation css-un1v39"></div> </div> <div id="duration" class="boxaudio-duration"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="life-headline--right"> <figure> <img src="https://static.bangkokpost.com/media/content/20241121/c1_2905732.jpg" class="img-fluid" alt="Italian visual artist Maurizio Cattelan's duct-taped Banana entitled "Comedian," is on display during a media preview at Sotheby's in New York, on Nov 8, 2024. (Photo supplied)"> <figcaption> Italian visual artist Maurizio Cattelan's duct-taped Banana entitled "Comedian," is on display during a media preview at Sotheby's in New York, on Nov 8, 2024. (Photo supplied) </figcaption> </figure> </div> </div> <article>  <div class="article-content"> <p>NEW YORK — Arguably the most famous artwork of the past decade has found a new buyer. <em>Comedian</em>, a sculpture by the artist Maurizio Cattelan, consisting of a piece of duct tape and a banana stuck to a wall, has sold for US$6.2 million at Sotheby’s in New York after more than six minutes of fierce bidding. The buyer is China-born crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, the auction house confirmed.</p> <p>In an interview with <em>Bloomberg </em>following the sale, Sun said he was considering paying with the cryptocurrency he founded, Tron (TRX), but failing that with Bitcoin, which hit a record $95,000 at the time of the auction. (The lot was the only one of the nights for which Sotheby’s would accept payments in crypto.)</p> <p>"First of all, I'm a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, but I also buy a lot of art," says Sun, referencing his purchases of Picasso and Warhol and Giacometti. "I found about <em>Comedian</em> a month ago, and I loved the idea," he continues. "It echoes with our idea of decentralisation in the crypto world, because this is a conceptual artwork—it's impossible for you to destroy the artwork itself."</p> <p>The work, which is one of an edition of three (plus two artist's proofs), carried a presale estimate of $1 million to $1.5 million, though advance buzz predicted (accurately, as it turns out) it would sell for several times that amount. "It's an artwork that's a perfect representation of the times that we're living in, which celebrates spectacle," said adviser Rob Teeters a few hours before the sale.</p> <p>The piece premiered in 2019 at Art Basel Miami Beach, when it was displayed in the booth of the Perrotin gallery. It immediately caused a stir, with onlookers growing so thick that the gallery was forced to take it down for crowd control. All three works from the edition sold for $120,000 to $150,000. One was subsequently donated to the Guggenheim; the other two remain in private hands.</p> <p>It did not take long for Cattelan's duct-taped banana to become a world-famous meme, appearing on the front page of the <em>New York Post</em> ("Bananas!"), posted by celebrities and turned into hats, knockoffs and other merchandise.</p> <p>It is also considered by many in the art world as a legitimate work of fine art. The <em>New York Times</em>' Jason Farago wrote a lengthy defence of the piece, arguing that the work "is a sculpture, one that continues Mr Cattelan's decades-long reliance on suspension to make the obvious seem ridiculous and to deflate and defeat the pretensions of earlier art." <em>Comedian</em>, Farago went on, is a continuation of "Cattelan's willingness to implicate himself within the economic, social and discursive systems that structure how we see and what we value."</p> <p>The buyer on Wednesday night was purchasing a certificate of authenticity that gave them the right to manifest the piece as an official artwork, though Sotheby's says they will in fact also receive a banana and a roll of duct tape as a sort of starter kit. (The work also comes with a detailed instruction manual for how it should be presented.)</p> <div class="articlePhotoCenter"><img src="https://static.bangkokpost.com/media/content/20241121/5353282.jpg" alt="A man poses for a photo next to a banana attached with duct-tape that replaces the artwork 'Comedian' by the artist Maurizio Cattelan, which was eaten by David Datuna, in Miami Beach, Florida, on Dec 7, 2019. (Photo: Reuters)" border="1" hspace="3" vspace="3"> <p>A man poses for a photo next to a banana attached with duct-tape that replaces the artwork 'Comedian' by the artist Maurizio Cattelan, which was eaten by David Datuna, in Miami Beach, Florida, on Dec 7, 2019. (Photo: Reuters)</p> </div> <p>@SpaceX @Sothebys I am Justin Sun, and I’m excited to share that I have successfully acquired Maurizio Cattelan’s iconic work, <em>Comedian</em> for $6.2 million. This is not just an artwork; it represents a cultural phenomenon… pic.twitter.com/lAj1RE6y0C</p> <p>As the lot came up, attendees in the packed auction room almost uniformly raised their phones to take videos. Auctioneer Oliver Barker began bidding at $800,000, and at least two phone bidders, two online, as well as three in the room, quickly pushed the work past its high estimate in under 20 seconds. (The puns flew — "don't let it slip away,” said Barker.) By the end, it came down one online bidder competing against one phone bidder. </p> <p>Finally, the hammer came down at $5.2 million; with auction house fees known as premiums, the final price was $6.24 million. Lofty as the result might be, it failed to eclipse the auction record for Cattelan’s work, set in 2016 at Christie's New York for a sculpture of a kneeling Adolf Hitler (<em>Him</em>, 2001), which sold for $17.2 million. </p> <p><em>Comedian</em> is not the first sale to grab headlines during this year’s mega November auction week in New York. On Tuesday a painting by the surrealist René Magritte sold for just over $121 million at Christie's, setting a world record for the artist and injecting some much-needed heat into an otherwise lacklustre art market.</p> <p>"It's drawing attention to the market," Teeters said of <em>Comedian</em>'s sale. "Is it adding to the health of the market? No, it's not."</p> <p>Sun plans to display the Cattelan in his Hong Kong apartment, but unlike his paintings and sculpture, he adds, "it's very easy to bring with me—that's the beauty of it." Sun says he's willing to loan the work to "any serious players in the industry who want to borrow our artwork to display it anywhere. If Elon Musk wants it, I'll let him put it on the spaceship to Mars," Sun concludes. "The banana goes to Mars."</p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <div class="embed-responsive-content" > <iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zCw2UrlxWr8?si=NOkjQX8VtU9XPpkG" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> </div></p> </div>   <div id="poll-life"></div> <div class="box-tag"> <ul> <li>KEYWORDS</li> <li><a title="Art" href="https://search.bangkokpost.com/search/result?category=all&q=art"> Art</a></li> <li><a title="Banana" href="https://search.bangkokpost.com/search/result?category=all&q=banana"> Banana</a></li> <li><a title="Duct tape" href="https://search.bangkokpost.com/search/result?category=all&q=duct%20tape"> Duct tape</a></li> <li><a title="Auction" href="https://search.bangkokpost.com/search/result?category=all&q=auction"> Auction</a></li> <li><a title="New york" href="https://search.bangkokpost.com/search/result?category=all&q=new%20york"> New york</a></li> <li><a title="Comedian" href="https://search.bangkokpost.com/search/result?category=all&q=comedian"> Comedian</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="box-like_unlike"> Do you like the content of this article? <div class="f-comment" id="like-dislike-article"> </div> </div> <div class="article-btn-comment"> <a href="javascript:void(0)" class="open-comment" onclick="g_comment.show_comment();"><i class="icon-comment"></i> COMMENT <span>(27)</span> </a> </div> </article> </div>  </div> </div> </div> <div class="div-taboola" style="max-width:900px; width:100%; margin:0 auto;">  <div id="taboola-below-life-widget-mobile" style="display:none"></div> <div id="taboola-below-life-widget-desktop" style="display:none"></div> </div> <div class="ads ads-billboard" id='div-gpt-ad-lb2'></div> <div class="section-page"> <div class="container"> <div class="title-header"> <h2>RECOMMENDED</h2> </div> <div 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Bangkok Post - Duct-taped banana sells for $6.2 million