# Maurizio Cattelan famous duct-taped banana could bring more than $1m at auction

Source: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/10/24/maurizio-cattelan-banana-at-auction

## Summary

Sotheby's is offering one of three editions of Maurizio Cattelan's duct-taped banana artwork, Comedian (2019), at its The Now and Contemporary auction on 20 November, with an estimate of $1m to $1.5m. The edition for sale includes a banana taped to the wall, a certificate of authenticity and display instructions, plus a single banana and one roll of duct tape. The work was priced at $120,000 at the Perrotin gallery stand at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019. David Galperin, Sotheby's head of contemporary art in the Americas, said in a statement that putting the work at auction would let the public decide its true value.

## Article

Maurizio Cattelan’s duct-taped banana caused an uproar at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019 and quickly went viral as a symbol of the absurdism of the contemporary art market, though Cattelan himself described Comedian (2019), his first “sculpture” in 15 years, as “a sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value”. That value will be put to the test next month, when one of the three editions of Comedian goes up for sale at Sotheby’s New York.

Made up of a banana duct taped to the wall, the work includes a certificate of authenticity and instructions for how to display the sculpture. The work, which was priced at $120,000 at the Perrotin gallery stand at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, is estimated by Sotheby’s to sell for between $1m and $1.5m. A single banana and one roll of duct tape are included in the sale, the auction house said.

“If at its core, Comedian questions the very notion of the value of art, then putting the work at auction this November will be the ultimate realisation of its essential conceptual idea—the public will finally have a say in deciding its true value,” David Galperin, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art in the Americas, said in a statement.

The world went bananas for Comedian upon its debut. Crowds queued to see the work at Perrotin’s stand, and days later the banana graced the cover of the New York Post with the headline: “BANANAS! Art world gone mad”. A performance artist even took a bite. (The banana has been eaten at least twice while on public display). The work had to be removed before the end of the fair over “uncontrollable crowd movements”, Perrotin said.

Three editions of Comedian were sold at the art fair. One was purchased by Sarah Andelman, the founder of the high-end Parisian shop Collette that shuttered in 2017. (Earlier this year, she curated Art Basel’s first retail store.) Another edition was sold to the Miami collectors William and Beatrice Cox, who promised to donate theirs to a museum (an edition was later donated anonymously to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York). A third was purchased by an anonymous collector, according to Perrotin. The work was so in-demand at the time that even Damien Hirst lamented about not being able to get his hands on one. A Sotheby's representative said the edition up for sale next month at the auction house had already traded hands on the private market before it was consigned.

Comedian will be sold at Sotheby’s The Now and Contemporary auction on 20 November, and will be available for the public to see in New York on Monday (28 October). For the display at Sotheby's New York, auction house staff sourced the banana from the fruit stand outside the headquarters on York Avenue. Comedian will also go on display in London, Paris, Milan, Hong Kong, Dubai, Taipei, Tokyo and Los Angeles. It is one of the flashiest consignments in a relatively subdued auction season. The most valuable consignment announced so far is René Magritte’s L'empire des lumières (1954), expected by Christie’s to sell for more than $95m.

## Comments

**mishaderidder.eth**: Or it could not :)

**@macbudkowski**: It always bugged me - if the banana is real and it is duct-taped, do they change the banana once in a few days before it rots? If so, how do they ensure they put the duct tape in the exact same spot so as not to destroy the artwork?

BTW last year, I wrote a post about Cattelan's banana and the NFTs' role in contemporary art:
https://kanfa.macbudkowski.com/how-nfts-save-contemporary-art

**mishaderidder.eth**: Essentially it doesn’t matter, the banana is an idea. It’s a conceptual piece of art, not so much a sculpture or an object. You could just recreate the work in your own home. But then of course you don’t officially own the idea. Luckily you can buy the idea from Maurizio. 

> Maurizio Cattelan's artwork Comedian, which features a banana taped to a wall, does not have a strict guideline for how often the banana should be replaced. The artist has indicated that when the banana decomposes, the owner can replace it with a new banana, and it will still be considered part of the artwork. However, there are no specific rules regarding the frequency of these replacements.

You could also eat it. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/someone-ate-maurizio-cattelan-banana-art-180982091/

> Cattelan has been unfazed by both incidents. He says that Noh’s actions are “no problem at all,” according to BBC News’ Fan Wang. Similarly, after Datuna made Comedian a snack, Cattelan said that eating the banana couldn’t destroy the work since “the banana is the idea,” reports Artnet.

**timdaub.eth**: I agree, the banana is the idea!!

**mishaderidder.eth**: ‘The Comedian’ is posing as a rebellious act to demystify and make visible the art market mechanics, but paradoxically, and that is exactly the setup, it is quickly incorporated by the market itself (at Sotheby’s). So it also show us that capitalism often absorbs its critiques and sells them back to us. The work remains stuck in this endless cycle. 

Is there a way to escape this seemingly endless cycle? 

This is perhaps one of the most challenging and important questions we face. The difficulty in answering it is itself telling - even discussing "escape" risks becoming another commodity.

I think this is the “idea” the art work and what Maurizio wants show us with this piece. In a way it is a very desperate work. The system's reach is nearly total, alternative systems are difficult to imagine, basic survival often requires participation and real resistance often faces actual consequences.

**timdaub.eth**: > So it also show us that capitalism often absorbs its critiques and sells them back to us. The work remains stuck in this endless cycle. 

Reminded me of this argument by Zizek about Starbucks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P18UK5IMRDI

> I think this is the “idea” the art work and what Maurizio wants show us with this piece. In a way it is a very desperate work. The system's reach is nearly total, alternative systems are difficult to imagine, basic survival often requires participation and real resistance often faces actual consequences.

Agreed, actually I even once wrote about this in the context of social media, which I think accelerated this trend even more:  https://timdaub.github.io/2022/07/10/dissenting-through-the-mainstream/

**mishaderidder.eth**: Yes, Zizek hits the nail on its head. (And your blogpost too.)

I think critical engagement indeed remains important. The goal might not be to escape entirely, but to create enough distance to imagine different possibilities while acknowledging our own entanglement in the system we critique. 

For example by creating new metrics for human worth, developing non-narrative forms of resistance (no story arc) and building parallel systems while acknowledging their imperfection. Create spaces of temporary autonomy and understand maybe that perfect escape might be impossible but partial resistance is valuable. 

**mishaderidder.eth**: Thinking about it, a viable critique on “The Comedian” could be that it only demystifies. Despite being a very desperate work, it is at the same time very cynical. It is not offering us any positive workable solutions. Maybe in this the work falls short. 

**timdaub.eth**: > It is not offering us any positive workable solutions. Maybe in this the work falls short. 

Don‘t think so. In fact, usually I view criticism as cheap when the criticizor hasn‘t put in the work to understand the stakes. Many losers criticize Elon and they bring up how what he‘s achieving isn‘t special. But how many criticize Elon who have gone through something similar as him?

It‘d not be powerful enough to shout from the side lines that art is falsely valued. A much more potent statement can be made by exposing the market‘s absurdity.

When I worked with Hito Steyerl on the StrikeDAO and to implement quadratic voting, she was convinced that the only way to properly criticize the model was by trying it. Not by intellectually picking it apart and just writing about it

**mishaderidder.eth**: > to properly criticize the model was by trying it. Not by intellectually picking it apart and just writing about it

Yes, that is a very good take. I agree. And in that respect the work of Maurizio is a proper critique. (And it also makes it less cynical.)

But still no way out is offered to us. Maybe eating the banana is a way out? 

And maybe, and maybe I’m overthinking it, the banana is a meme symbolizing the glitch, the random, the unexpected error. Maybe the way out is to look for errors, the random glitches in the system the can offer insight and new ideas to develop.

Also thinking of The Matrix, where glitches manifest as anomalies in the perceived reality, indicating that the simulated world is not functioning perfectly, highlighting the fragility of the simulated reality.

**mishaderidder.eth**: Bananas is btw also a meme for what apes and monkeys crave ;)

**timdaub.eth**: I actually think the proposed way out here is (1) mimetics, (2) systemic failure, (3) will to reform. 
That's the only way I know how these patterns can play out. I've seen it in crypto. So by giving himself the permission to "sell this bullshit to the art market" taking advantage of what he intended to criticize, he's also opening up the possibility for other artists to first take advantage of that "glitch in the matrix" too. Or, he's not leaving others a choice. "Either also sell your bullshit or have fun staying poor."

And then hopefully this ends up repeating more and more, eventually leading to systemic failure. When that happens enough people will be hurt so that there's going to be  broad enough support to generalize some of the lessons gained in the failure and hence there'll be a will to reform in the public.