Italian Artist’s Banana Artwork Sells for $6.2 Million

A much-publicized art piece made up of a single banana taped to a wall has sold for $6.2 million.

The sale happened Wednesday night during an auction in New York City at famous art seller Sotheby's. The work, called Comedian, was sold to cryptocurrency businessman Justin Sun. He is a Chinese collector and founder of the cryptocurrency company Tron. Sun placed the winning bid over the phone and the sale was completed in cryptocurrency.

Before the auction, Sotheby's said the unusual art piece was expected to bring in at least $1.5 million. But the price quickly started rising after the auction began, with people bidding inside the auction room, as well as on the phone and online.

The art piece had already sold three times for prices between $120,000 and $150,000, The Associated Press reported.

Sun said in a statement after the auction that Comedian "is not just an artwork." He added that the piece "bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community.”

Sun said he planned to eat the banana, as at least two onlookers did when the artwork was presented at places around the world. Sotheby's says the fruit was always meant to be replaced repeatedly, along with the duct tape.

The work was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. It was first presented in 2019 at the Art Basel Miami Beach show in Miami, Florida. The piece quickly led to much public discussion about what should be considered art.

Comedian belongs to a kind of art known as conceptual artwork. A conceptual piece is one in which the idea or meaning behind the work is more important than the finished object itself.

The head of contemporary art at Sotheby's is David Galperin. He told the AP he understands the piece's popularity because it is highly provocative. Provocative describes something likely to produce a strong reaction and much public debate.

“What Cattelan is really doing is turning a mirror to the contemporary art world,” Galperin said. He added that he thinks Comedian can cause people to question what values should be attached to artworks and what can be defined as artwork.

“What you buy when you buy Cattelan's Comedian is not the banana itself, but a certificate of authenticity,” Galperin said. That document, he added, gives the owner permission to reproduce the banana and duct tape on their own wall as an original artwork by the artist.

The sale of Comedian came shortly after Sotheby's auctioned off a famed artwork in the Water Lilies series by French painter Claude Monet. That piece sold on Monday for $65.5 million.

When asked to compare Cattelan's simple wall art to major works like Monet's, Galperin said that form of art, called impressionism, was not taken seriously when that movement first began.

“No important, profound, meaningful artwork of the past 100 years or 200 years, or our history for that matter, did not provoke some kind of discomfort when it was first unveiled,” Galperin said.

I'm Bryan Lynn.

The Associated Press reported this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English.

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auction - n. a public sale at which things are sold to the people who offer to pay the most

comedian – n. a person who performs in front of an audience and makes people laugh by telling jokes or funny stories or by acting in a way that is funny

bid – v. to offer to pay a particular amount of money for something

meme – n. an idea, image, video, etc. that spreads very quickly on the internet

duct tape – n. a very strong tape that is often used to cover holes and other repair jobs

mirror – n. a piece of glass with a shiny, metal-covered back that reflects light and produces an image of whatever is in front of it

certificate of authenticity – n. document that prove an artwork, or something, is real

original – adj. an original piece of work, such as a painting, etc. is produced by the artist and not a copy

profound – adj. felt or experienced very strongly or in an extreme way