A Banana Duct-Taped To A Wall Just Sold For $120,000 At Art Basel Miami

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A banana, duct-taped to a wall sold for $120,000 at Miami’s Art Basel this week.

According to Perrotin, the contemporary art gallery behind the work, two of the three editions have already sold, with the last now expected to sell for $150,000.

The piece, called “The Comedian,” was created by Maurizio Cattelan, an Italian artist who made headlines in 2017 with his “America” 18-carat-gold toilet. The $6-million throne was stolen from England’s Blenheim Palace over the summer.

The artwork comprises a banana bought in a Miami grocery store and a single piece of duct tape.

Prior to the reported sale, the gallery’s founder, Emmanuel Perrotin, told CNN the bananas are “a symbol of global trade, a double entendre, as well as a classic device for humor,” adding that the artist turns mundane objects into “vehicles of both delight and critique.”

“Whether affixed to the wall of an art fair booth or displayed on the cover of the New York Post, his work forces us to question how value is placed on material goods,” Perrotin told CBS News.

He added that “the spectacle is as much a part of the work as the banana.”

According to a press statement from Galerie Perrotin, the artist first came up with the idea a year ago.

“Back then, Cattelan was thinking of a sculpture that was shaped like a banana,” it reads. “Every time he traveled, he brought a banana with him and hung it in his hotel room to find inspiration. He made several models: first in resin, then in bronze and in painted bronze (before) finally coming back to the initial idea of a real banana.”

Here’s how social media is reacting to the controversial piece:

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