This article is reproduced from the Chinese website of the New York Times
When is a banana not just a banana? When it's a work of art. At Sotheby's auction on Wednesday night, Maurizio Cattelan's conceptual work sold for $5.2 million, or $6.2 million including premium.
When is a banana not just a banana? When it's a work of art. At Sotheby's auction on Wednesday night, this conceptual work by Maurizio Cattelan sold for $5.2 million, or $6.2 million including premium.
This is not just a banana. This is a banana with a story.
The bizarre scene on Wednesday evening - where auctioneers at Sotheby's in Manhattan urged potential bidders not to let Maurizio Cattelan's fruit artwork "slip away" - ended with a banana wrapped in duct tape selling for a whopping $6.2 million including fees.
A cryptocurrency entrepreneur named Justin Sun from Hong Kong made the successful bid to add this 2019 Cattelan conceptual art piece (The Comedian) to the eccentric collection he has amassed over the past few years, which includes sculptures by Giacometti, paintings by Picasso, and an extremely expensive Pet Rock NFT.
Winning the auction, though, is just the beginning of negotiations over the next month or so. (The buyer typically has 30 days to pay, by which time the bananas will inevitably turn black and rot.) In a phone interview this week, Sun said he plans to pay with a cryptocurrency he invented; but Sotheby’s may only accept more popular digital payment methods such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.
After watching the super-rich spend a fortune on a piece of fruit that will likely go bad and rot because of their success, you might have the following six questions:
What exactly does $6.2 million buy?
Cryptocurrency entrepreneur and arts patron Justin Sun.
Justin Sun, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur and arts patron. STEVEN FERDMAN/GETTY IMAGES
The cryptocurrency entrepreneur said he intended to “personally eat the banana as part of this unique art experience,” and realistically, even if refrigerated, it’s unlikely that the banana on display at Sotheby’s would have survived the flight to Hong Kong in good condition.
In fact, the duct-taped banana is just a physical representation of a conceptual artwork Cattelan made for the 2019 Art Basel Miami Beach fair, which was originally priced between $120,000 and $150,000.
Conceptual artworks are essentially ideas. Artists usually sell them with a certificate of authenticity and a list of instructions for owners to learn how to maintain or recreate the work they purchased. Cattelan made three versions of (The Comedian).
Once the auction house clears payment, Sun will likely inherit a surprisingly detailed 14-page list of instructions, complete with illustrations, that Catelan provided to other banana collectors, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which acquired a version from an anonymous donor several years ago.
The instructions included diagrams and explained how to install and display the banana, including permission to replace the banana if it rotted. Lena Stringary, then chief conservator at the Guggenheim, said the instructions were easy to follow; they recommended replacing the banana every seven to 10 days and securing it about 1.75 meters off the ground.
Comes with a new roll of silver duct tape.
What did Maurizio Cattelan get out of the deal?
Nothing! Except a lot of attention.
Cattelan earned an undisclosed sum when he initially sold the banana (the work was the second of three editions by the artist). The buyer consigned the banana to Sotheby’s. While artists receive a percentage of the resale of their work in countries such as the UK, France and Italy, this is not the case in the US, where auction houses have no similar obligation.
In recent years, artists have turned to blockchain tools like NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to build resale royalties into sales contracts. Auction houses like Sotheby’s have adhered to these contracts even as the broader NFT market has largely abandoned them.
But whether it’s a traditional work of art or a non-traditional one like (The Comedian), there’s no clause stipulating that part of Sun’s payment must go to the artist.
“The auction houses and collectors profit from this, and the creators, who create the works that drive the market, are excluded,” Cattelan said in an interview before the sale. “Isn’t it strange that NFTs provide royalties every time they are resold, but the traditional art market doesn’t have a similar system?”
Why would someone spend $6.2 million on a banana?
Justin Sun said: "This is not just a work of art, it represents a cultural phenomenon that builds a bridge between the art, meme and cryptocurrency communities. I believe this work will trigger more thinking and discussion in the future and will become a part of history."
But more broadly, participation in the art market offers the super-rich a sense of cultural influence, self-actualization and community. Building a collection is often the first step to joining the boards of museums and influential nonprofits, where the wealthy can build a lasting reputation and network with other businesspeople.
In recent years, upstarts in the cryptocurrency world and other industries have also bought art to promote themselves and their businesses. Even low-bidders, those who failed to secure the winning bid, are often willing to reveal their identities for publicity. The morning after the (comedian) auction, two cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, Ryan Zurler and Cozzomo De Medici (pseudonyms), said through a spokesman that they also participated in the auction along with five other groups of bidders and ultimately lost to Justin Sun.
How much does a banana cost?
At a fruit stand on Manhattan's Upper West Side? 25 cents.
At the fruit stand outside Sotheby's on the Upper East Side, where the auction house gets its bananas, prices were higher. On Wednesday evening, a Bangladeshi fruit vendor said a banana cost 35 cents. Little did he know that just a few meters away, his Dole banana would become a $6.2 million work of art.
This means that the value of his bananas increased 18 million times overnight. He did not answer questions about whether his fruit stall would increase prices.
Who is Justin Sun?
Justin Sun bought a Picasso painting (Reclining Nude with Necklace) for $20 million at Christie's auction house in London in 2021.
Justin Sun bought a Picasso painting (Reclining Nude with Necklace) for $20 million at Christie's in London in 2021. JUSTIN TALLIS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
Sun, 34, the founder of the cryptocurrency Tron, was charged last year by the SEC with unregistered sales of crypto-asset securities and using manipulative practices to create the appearance of strong investor interest in his digital currency. The commission also accused eight celebrities, including actress Lindsay Lohan, of illegally promoting Sun's cryptocurrency. Sun has challenged the charges, arguing in a court filing that the commission had incorrectly applied the law and had no jurisdiction over the case.
Sun Yuchen, who was born in China, also holds Grenadian citizenship and once served as Grenada's ambassador to the World Trade Organization. On TRON's website, he still uses the honorific "Your Excellency". In an interview, he said that he became fascinated with the cryptocurrency industry after studying at the University of Pennsylvania.
He currently works with art advisor Sidney Xiong, who helped him buy a $20 million Picasso painting at a Christie's auction in 2021 and a $78.4 million Giacometti sculpture at a Sotheby's auction later that year. In addition, the advisor and Justin Sun have also partnered to establish the APENFT Foundation, which provides funding to artists and helps build a bridge between the traditional and digital art worlds.
Come on. Who would believe that a banana is actually a work of art? Marcel Duchamp's 1917 work (Fountain) was featured in the Dadaist artist's 2006 retrospective. Duchamp declared this ceramic urinal to be art, so it became art.
Marcel Duchamp's 1917 work (Fountain) was featured in the Dadaist artist's 2006 retrospective. Duchamp declared the ceramic urinal art, so it became art. ADAGP 2005, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Artists have been pushing the boundaries of what art is for centuries. French artist Marcel Duchamp is a famous example, and no doubt the inspiration for Cattelan’s defiant banana.
In 1917, Duchamp turned a urinal upside down and wrote the fictitious name "R. Mutt" on it, making it look like an artist's signature. He declared that the urinal had become a sculpture called (Fountain), which shocked the traditional art world at the time. Duchamp also transformed commercial products such as rakes, stools, shovels and hangers into "ready-mades", and people accepted them just because he said they were works of art.
With his banana, Cattelan raises similar questions about the role of public opinion and elite institutions in defining what is and is not art. But he also reminds people that the art market is interested in anything that can be marketed as a serious work of art - even a plain banana. $TRX