Maurizio Cattelan’s duct-taped banana caused an uproar at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019 and quickly went viral as a symbol of the absurdism of the contemporary art market, though Cattelan himself described Comedian (2019), his first “sculpture” in 15 years, as “a sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value”. That value will be put to the test next month, when one of the three editions of Comedian goes up for sale at Sotheby’s New York.
Made up of a banana duct taped to the wall, the work includes a certificate of authenticity and instructions for how to display the sculpture. The work, which was priced at $120,000 at the Perrotin gallery stand at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, is estimated by Sotheby’s to sell for between $1m and $1.5m. A single banana and one roll of duct tape are included in the sale, the auction house said.
“If at its core, Comedian questions the very notion of the value of art, then putting the work at auction this November will be the ultimate realisation of its essential conceptual idea—the public will finally have a say in deciding its true value,” David Galperin, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art in the Americas, said in a statement.
The world went bananas for Comedian upon its debut. Crowds queued to see the work at Perrotin’s stand, and days later the banana graced the cover of the New York Post with the headline: “BANANAS! Art world gone mad”. A performance artist even took a bite. (The banana has been eaten at least twice while on public display). The work had to be removed before the end of the fair over “uncontrollable crowd movements”, Perrotin said.
Three editions of Comedian were sold at the art fair. One was purchased by Sarah Andelman, the founder of the high-end Parisian shop Collette that shuttered in 2017. (Earlier this year, she curated Art Basel’s first retail store.) Another edition was sold to the Miami collectors William and Beatrice Cox, who promised to donate theirs to a museum (an edition was later donated anonymously to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York). A third was purchased by an anonymous collector, according to Perrotin. The work was so in-demand at the time that even Damien Hirst lamented about not being able to get his hands on one. A Sotheby's representative said the edition up for sale next month at the auction house had already traded hands on the private market before it was consigned.
Comedian will be sold at Sotheby’s The Now and Contemporary auction on 20 November, and will be available for the public to see in New York on Monday (28 October). For the display at Sotheby's New York, auction house staff sourced the banana from the fruit stand outside the headquarters on York Avenue. Comedian will also go on display in London, Paris, Milan, Hong Kong, Dubai, Taipei, Tokyo and Los Angeles. It is one of the flashiest consignments in a relatively subdued auction season. The most valuable consignment announced so far is René Magritte’s L'empire des lumières (1954), expected by Christie’s to sell for more than $95m.