(Image via msn.com / San Francisco Chronicle)
Business Manager: Brendan Flaherty
Email: bflaherty1@umassd.edu
On November 20th, in New York City, an auction was held to sell off some rare and fancy art pieces.
One of the many pieces was a banana duct-taped to the wall.
This piece was sold for $6.2 million to Justin Sun, who later ate the now multi-million dollar yellow fruit on November 29th. He devoured the fruit in front of journalists after a speech, giving his humble review: “It’s much better than other bananas.”
Created in 2019 by artist Maurizio Cattelan, the piece was titled, very fittingly, “Comedian.” According to the San Francisco Chronicle, it was originally sold at Art Basel Miami for $120,000.
Cattelan is an artist who especially likes to make pieces that poke fun at different topics and things that plague people the most, like society and authority. He has not released a piece in a decent amount of time, and his latest creation is no exception to his style.
At first, he wanted to create it with several different materials but settled on using a real banana instead, as Vanity Fair mentioned.
The first edition was originally sold for $120,000 to Sarah Andleman, and a French man and Billy and Beatrice Cox bought the other editions.
The edition that was sold in the auction was acquired from one of the original buyers and was to be sold in the Sotheby’s auction house in New York.
Many buyers from all over the place came to gather to buy this rare edition of the fruit. Still, it eventually came down to one bid of $5.2 million from Sotheby’s deputy Asia chair, Jen Hua, who was on the phone with Justin Sun.
The price was rounded up due to extra fees and taxes, bringing the total to $6.2 million for the piece of art.
Sun immediately took to social media after winning the piece, saying, “I am honored to be the proud owner of the banana and look forward to it sparking further inspiration and impact for art enthusiasts around the world.”
Sun continued, “[I]n the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honoring its place in both art history and popular culture.”
Now, how did Sun achieve such financial stability to buy a 35-cent banana for $6.2 million? The truth is that it might have come from the 2024 presidential election in the U.S.
After President Trump was recognized as the next president in line, the crypto industry began to boom because of the various leanings that Trump had on display throughout his campaign.
As Forbes reported, Trump’s proposed actions to “reform crypto regulations” have raised the possibility that the leadership behind U.S. crypto could flourish within the next president’s term.
It just so happens that Justin Sun is the owner of a cryptocurrency called TRON, a foundation first established in 2017. Cryptocurrency would also be accepted for this piece of fruit within this auction.
Anyone can do whatever they want with the art they create; however, it is slightly ironic that the piece that was bought for so much money was made to “serve as a critique of contemporary art and consumerism,” as the San Francisco Chronicle mentioned.
It is also ironic because the piece loses some of its meaning after being bought for so much, as most people will now only look to it for the value at which it was bought and not at the deeper meanings that it harbors.
The piece was made to be a joke and was always meant to be an Instagram-able piece that made people laugh at the absurdity of it all, just as it continues to be sold for millions of dollars.
Instead of looking at the ridiculous price tag that this simple banana was set, we should be talking about the consumerism that plagues many of today’s artistic pieces, rendering the meaning and the true value of art unattainable unless you look into your wallet first.