A banana that was duct-taped to a wall was sold at a Miami art gallery for $120,000.
Perrotin, a contemporary art gallery, presented the work on Wednesday, which was created by Maurizio Cattelan. It’s the artists first contribution to an art gallery in 15 years. The artwork, titled Comedian, features a banana purchased in a Miami grocery store with only one piece of duck tape used to hold it up. The gallery has three editions, two of which have already been sold for $120,000. Prices have increased for the last one. However, buyers have not been told what to do should the artwork go bad.
The gallery’s founder, Emmanuel Perrotin, told CNN that bananas represent “global trade, a double entendre, as well as a class device for humor.” He also praised the artist, saying Cattelan had the ability to use mundane objects and transform them into “vehicles of both delight and critique.”
Perrotin said in a statement that Cattelan came up with the idea for the artwork a year ago.
“Back then, Cattelan was thinking of a sculpture that was shaped like a banana,” it reads. “Every time he traveled, he brought a banana with him and hung it in his hotel room to find inspiration. He made several models: first in resin, then in bronze and in painted bronze (before) finally coming back to the initial idea of a real banana.”
The reactions were swift.
No no we’re not living through a second Gilded Age at all. Everything is perfectly fine and normal. Just an artist duct-taping a banana to a wall and selling it for $120,000 at Art Basel in Miami Beach, is all. https://t.co/oRnUNyMKL9
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) December 6, 2019
As ludicrous as it can get. “Artist sells banana duct-taped to wall for $120,000 at Art Basel in Miami Beach” https://t.co/mu24pyvkBA via @nbcnews
— Mehboob Jeelani (@JeelaniReports) December 6, 2019
Massive kudos to the gallery employee who managed to say, “that banana duct-taped to the wall? It’s $120,000,” without cracking up. https://t.co/AB3apalcvF
— Quentin Hardy (@qhardy) December 6, 2019
America today: The poor are losing their food stamps while the rich are buying banans duct-taped to walls for $120,000 https://t.co/OVhMtOUMjM
— Pitt Griffin (@pittgriffin) December 6, 2019
