A banana taped to a wall sold for $6.2 million at auction in New York on Wednesday, with a prominent cryptocurrency entrepreneur winning. The concept art piece is titled “The Comedian” and was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattellano.
Crypto entrepreneur paid over 40x for illustration of banana taped
Justin Sun, founder of cryptocurrency platform TRON, is a buyer of Maurizio Cattelano’s artwork. He paid for the artwork in cryptography, and he will be responsible for replacing the banana if it rots, according to Artnet.com.
According to the Associated Press, the 2019 debut at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019 became a phenomenon, with festival-goers trying to figure out whether a single yellow piece of fruit attached to a white wall with silver duct tape was a joke or a cheeky comment on the questionable standards among collectors. art. At one point, another artist took a banana off the wall and ate it.
The work attracted so much attention that it had to be taken out of sight. But the three editions sold for between $1,20,000 and $1,50,000, according to the gallery handling the sale at the time. 5 years later, Justin Sun bought it and paid more than 40 times the asking price at Sotheby’s. He’s also reportedly acquired a certificate of authenticity that gives him the right to tape a banana to a wall and call it “The Comedian.”
According to an AP report, bidding started at $8 million and within minutes rose to $2 million, then $3 million, then $4 million and higher, as auctioneer Oliver Barker joked, “Don’t let it slip away. Don’t miss this opportunity. These are the words I could never say: five million dollars for a banana.’
The hammer’s final price was US$5.2 million, excluding about $1 million in auction house fees paid by Justin Sun.
Sun said in a statement that the piece “represents a cultural phenomenon that connects the worlds of art, memes and the cryptocurrency community.” But he said that the latest version of “The Comedian” will not last long.
