The duct-taped banana that shook up the art world is back. Next month, Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian (2019) is heading to the auction block at Sotheby’s with a shocking seven-figure price tag. The announcement reignited the timeworn debate about what constitutes a work of auctionable art in the 21st century.
Comedian Heads to Auction at Sotheby’s
Comedian, the infamous conceptual artwork by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, comprises a banana duct-taped to a white wall. It went viral shortly after its debut at Gallery Perrotin’s 2019 booth at Art Basel Miami Beach, attracting such large crowds that it eventually had to be removed. By the end of the fair, Cattelan had caused quite a stir amongst fans and critics alike. He had also sold three editions of the duct-taped banana for over $100,000 apiece.
On November 20, Comedian will headline the Now and Contemporary Evening Auction at Sotheby’s New York alongside the likes of Jasper Johns and Cy Twombly. Sotheby’s estimates the duct-taped banana will fetch $1-1.5 million—but the winning bidder won’t actually leave with a ripening fruit. Instead, they’ll get a certificate of authenticity, which comes with a surprisingly lengthy instruction manual specifying the exact angle and height at which to duct-tape a banana to the wall. For the pre-auction exhibition of Comedian, Sotheby’s sourced a banana from the fruit stand outside its York Avenue headquarters.
Cattelan Says Duct-Taped Banana Is “Not a Joke”
In a 2021 interview with the Art Newspaper, Maurizio Cattelan explained his intentions behind the infamous duct-taped banana. “To me, Comedian was not a joke,” he said. “It was a sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value. At art fairs, speed and business reign, so I saw it like this: if I had to be at a fair, I could sell a banana like others sell their paintings. I could play within the system, but with my rules.”
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Sign up to our Free Weekly NewsletterDavid Galperin, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art in the Americas, echoed Cattelan’s assertion. In a recent statement, he 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 realization of its essential conceptual idea—the public will finally have a say in deciding its true value.”
Cattelan’s Comedian in the News
As a boundary-breaking conceptual artist, Maurizio Cattelan is accustomed to the media circus he tends to provoke. The duct-taped banana alone has consistently grabbed headlines in the years since its viral debut—from outrage to applause to memes and more. There have even been two separate instances in which Comedian was plucked off a gallery wall and eaten. The first was a performance piece by Georgian-American artist David Datuna at Art Basel Miami Beach, who aptly titled the audacious stunt Hungry Artist. A few years later, Comedian was consumed again—this time by Noh Huyn-soo, an art student who visited a Cattelan exhibition at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul.
