Last Wednesday at Sotheby’s in New York, Comedian, a very a-peeling banana duct-taped to a wall, was sold for 6.24 million dollars by Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun at an auction at Sotheby’s auction in New York. Art teacher Ms. Schwarz explains that, “The artist named it comedian because Vaudeville comedians would slip and fall on banana peels.”
Despite its simplicity, this banana has a-bunch of history. The artwork was made by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan in 2019 as an edition of three, which gained popularity through social media after they were sold at Art Basel Miami Beach that same year. One sold for $120,000; the other two sold for $150,000.
In 2021, American artist Joe Morford filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the work, claiming that Cattelan had copied his earlier work, Banana and Orange, which was created two decades prior. However, the lawsuit concluded in 2023 when a judge declared that there was not enough evidence to support the argument.
Adding to its story, the banana has also been eaten multiple times. It was first eaten by performance artist David Datuna in 2019 at Art Basel Miami Beach to demonstrate how ridiculous a banana worth over 100,000 is. Then, in 2023, a hungry Seoul University student, Noh Huyn-soo, reinstalled the empty peel back on the wall where it was originally displayed at Seoul’s Leeum Museum of Art. Lastly, Justin Sun ate it, not once, but twice after he bought the piece last week, expressing that it was “much better than other bananas” in an interview with The Guardian.
Typically known for his satirical installations and sculptures, Maurizio Cattelan’s approach has labeled him as a prankster and joker to some in the art world. “‘I think he created Comedian just to provoke people,” seventh grader Emerson Betz says. He has created multiple famous works, including America (a functioning toilet made of solid 18-carat gold, made in 2016) and Sunday (64 panels of 24-karat gold-plated stainless steel that appear to be affected by gunfire, made in 2024). Ms. Schwarz comments that “It’s a bit frustrating for those of us practicing artists that we can’t get famous like that. But [she believes] it all comes down to who thinks of what first.”
