Memento :
The history of this piece is a masterclass in the absurdities of the contemporary art market:
The Debut (2019): Cattelan bought a regular banana from a Miami grocery store for about 30 cents, stuck it to a gallery wall with a piece of silver duct tape, and priced it at $120,000. Two editions sold immediately.
The "Hungry Artist" Incident: While crowds were lining up in droves just to take selfies with the fruit, a performance artist named David Datuna walked up, peeled the banana off the wall, and ate it in front of everyone, calling his stunt Hungry Artist. The gallery simply taped up a replacement banana.
The $6.2 Million New York Auction (2024): The absurdity peaked when one of the editions went up for auction at Sotheby's in New York. Bidding started at $800,000 and rapidly escalated into a wild bidding war, finally selling for a staggering $6.2 million to crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun.
What did the buyer actually pay for?
Naturally, nobody is paying millions for a rotting piece of fruit. The buyer doesn't own the physical banana or the tape; they paid for a 14-page instruction manual and a Certificate of Authenticity.
The certificate grants the owner the official right to buy any regular banana, slap a piece of duct tape over it precisely 160 centimeters above the floor, and legally call it an original Maurizio Cattelan artwork. Keeping the joke alive, Justin Sun held a press conference shortly after the auction and publicly ate his newly acquired $6.2 million purchase.
2026-05-27 20:05:35