Duct-taped Banana Artwork Set to Fetch Up to $1.5 Million at Auction

Step into any supermarket, and you’ll find a banana for less than a dollar. But a banana duct-taped to a wall? That’s set to fetch between $1 million and $1.5 million at an upcoming Sotheby’s auction in New York.

This yellow banana, affixed to a white wall with silver duct tape, is known as “Comedian,” a piece by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. The artwork first made waves in 2019 at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair, where it debuted as an edition of three and captured immense attention.

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The controversial piece was the subject of much debate: Was it a prank? A commentary on the state of the contemporary art world? During its initial display, a fellow artist even took the banana from the wall and ate it. Subsequently, a backup banana was installed. The spectacle drew such large crowds seeking selfies that “Comedian” had to be removed from view. Nonetheless, three editions of the piece sold for between $120,000 and $150,000, according to the Perrotin gallery.

Now, this conceptual artwork has been re-evaluated, with a staggering estimated value for its upcoming auction on November 20. David Galperin, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art, describes it as both profound and provocative.

“What Cattelan is really doing is turning a mirror to the contemporary art world and asking questions, provoking thought about how we ascribe value to artworks, what we define as an artwork,” said Galperin.

For prospective bidders, it’s important to note that they won’t be purchasing the same banana that was displayed in Miami. Those bananas are long gone. Sotheby’s emphasizes that the fruit and tape are meant to be replaced regularly.

“What you buy when you buy Cattelan’s ‘Comedian’ is not the banana itself, but a certificate of authenticity that grants the owner the permission and authority to reproduce this banana and duct tape on their wall as an original artwork by Maurizio Cattelan,” explained Galperin.

The very title, “Comedian,” hints that Cattelan likely didn’t intend for it to be taken too seriously. Yet, Chloé Cooper Jones, an assistant professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, urges us to consider the context.

Cattelan premiered the work at an art fair frequented by affluent art collectors, ensuring “Comedian” a flurry of social media attention. According to Cooper Jones, this might have been a dare of sorts to collectors to invest in the absurd.

If “Comedian” serves merely to underscore the insular, capitalist nature of the art world, Cooper Jones finds the idea less compelling. However, she believes the piece might transcend simple satire.

Often viewed as a “trickster artist,” Cattelan combines humor with macabre elements, provoking thought not just for shock value but to make us confront the darker aspects of history and ourselves. Cooper Jones notes that the banana itself carries a darker symbolism, intertwined with imperialism, labor exploitation, and corporate influence.

“It would be hard to come up with a better, simple symbol of global trade and all of its exploitations than the banana,” Cooper Jones said. If “Comedian” makes people ponder their moral complicity in the production of everyday objects, then it becomes a more meaningful piece, she argued.

“Comedian” arrives at the auction block alongside a renowned piece from Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies” series, valued at around $60 million.

When asked to juxtapose Cattelan’s banana with a classic like Monet’s “Nymphéas,” Galperin noted that Impressionism itself faced skepticism in its early days.

“No important, profound, meaningful artwork of the past 100 years or 200 years, or our history for that matter, did not provoke some kind of discomfort when it was first unveiled,” Galperin remarked.