Banana Company Artwashes Its Bloody Legacy at Art Basel Miami Beach

Chiquita's sponsorship of Art Basel Miami Beach is an example of artwashing, according to an opinion piece by the authors of Banana Craze, a digital humanities project on banana imagery in contemporary Latin American art. The authors note that Chiquita, formerly the United Fruit Company, was found liable in a civil case in 2024 for financing paramilitary killings in Colombia between 1997 and 2004, and that the judge ordered it to pay $38.3 million to the victims' families. The authors argue that the fair, with its strong Latin American character, should instead spotlight Latin American artists who criticize the company's practices.