On the evening of November 20, Sotheby’s auction house sold an artwork by Maurizio Cattelan for an astonishing sum. The piece, entitled Comedian, is not a conventional painting or sculpture. It consists of an ordinary banana, duct-taped to a wall at a jaunty angle. The hammer price? A staggering US$6.2 million (£4.9 million).
The widespread incredulity surrounding this exorbitant price has been tinged with humour. The sale has been perceived by many as a kind of jest at the expense of the buyer, Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun.
It has even spawned its own meme and hash-tag, #BTW, which stands for “Banana Tape Wall”. Sun took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to say he was “thrilled” with his purchase and would be eating the banana in the coming days.
