There’s a banana stuck to a wall that’s currently the hottest thing in the art world — someone reportedly even paid $120,000 for this banana in 2021. In another instance, someone paid $6.24 million for the same concept. Maurizio Cattelan, the artist responsible, has named the artwork Comedian, but they promise it’s not a joke.
We know what you’re thinking: was the Comedian at least created using a special banana that somehow comments on society? No, just a regular banana bought from a Miami grocery store. Was there a plan to preserve the banana, perhaps as a metaphor for the indomitable human spirit? Not exactly. A performance artist simply eats the banana at the end of the show. In fact, each installation uses a new banana and different duct tape.
Cattelan’s goal with the piece is to highlight what humanity values today, ostensibly showing how temporary and meaningless the material things we cherish can be. His belief is that if the entire concept of this particular artwork is to question how we interact with things of value — including art — then auctioning Comedian fully drives the point home.
The artwork went to auction at Sotheby’s on Nov. 20, 2024, with a starting bid of $800,000. Chinese cryptopreneur Justin Sun ultimately paid $6.24 million for it. According to Sotheby’s estimations, Sun overpaid since they only expected the piece to fetch between $1 and $1.5 million. However, Sun didn’t seem fazed. In fact, he described the artwork as transcending the world of art, saying in a press release: “It represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community. I believe this piece will inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history.”
Indeed, this banana has become part of history as easily the most expensive banana of all time. Sun even announced on X that he — like many of us — had just bought a banana. He added that he plans to eat the banana, but unlike the rest of us who simply move on with our day after we consume bananas, his consumption of the $6.24 million banana will be a unique artistic experience — one he believes will force society to finally take, as he described it, the world of memes more seriously.
CNN reports that Sotheby’s exhibited the artwork in major cities, including London, Los Angeles, and Dubai. And while it’s not really up to us to determine what is or isn’t art, this is easily one of the most absurd things to happen in an already chaotic year.
If this were purely performance art, we might see some merit in the critique of overconsumption and the way we assign value to things only to render it meaningless shortly after. But the financial aspect renders Comedian antithetical to the very human vice it claims to critique. This will make headlines, but their point will undoubtedly get lost — that is, if there was a real point in the first place. This is either a troll or a scam. Probably both.