That Viral Banana Duct-Taped to a Wall? It Just Sold for $6.2 Million

Artist Maurizio Cattelan’s viral duct-taped banana has sold for a total of $6.2 million. The piece, called Comedian, soared past its pre-auction estimate of $1.5 million at a Sotheby's auction on Wednesday.

The banana “transcends geographies, language, understanding, cultural differences,” David Galperin, head of contemporary art for Sotheby’s, told the Washington Post’s Ashley Fetters Maloy after the auction. And the high price tag it commanded “spoke to its universality, the way it kind of pierces through the cultural zeitgeist to the very center,” he added.

Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun beat out six other collectors after a five-minute bidding war for the piece. He gets the banana, plus a certificate of authenticity and installation instructions in case he decides to replace the fruit once it rots.

For Sun, Comedian symbolizes “a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes and the cryptocurrency community,” he says in a statement. Now that the piece is officially his, he says he plans to “personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honoring its place in both art history and popular culture.”

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The artwork—a yellow banana duct-taped to a white wall exactly 160 centimeters (63 inches) above the ground—has been a controversial conversation-starter ever since it debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2019.

At the art fair, the piece attracted huge crowds and, at one point, was even snatched off the wall and eaten by performance artist David Datuna. (In 2023, a university student ate the banana again while it was on display at Seoul’s Leeum Museum of Art.) It went viral online and landed on the cover of the New York Post. Three versions of the banana sold for $120,000 to $150,000 each; one was later donated anonymously to the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

Cattelan has been described as a “provocateur,” a “prankster” and a “poseur joker.” His past works have included a fully functioning, 18-karat gold toilet called America, and a sculpture of the Pope being crushed by a meteorite called La Nona Ora.

In Cattelan's view, Comedian is “not a joke” but rather a “sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value,” as he told the Art Newspaper’s Gareth Harris in 2021. He hoped the piece would “break up the normal viewing habits and open a discussion on what really matters,” he told the publication.

The World's Most Expensive Banana: Maurizio Cattelan's 'Comedian' Sells for $6.2 Million | Sotheby's

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The banana that sold at auction this week was purchased earlier that same day for 35 cents from a fruit stand on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, reports the New York Times’ Zachary Small.

But Sun wasn’t just buying a piece of potassium-rich fruit. He was paying for the “story of Comedian, the publicity and his own version of how he wants to be seen as a collector, which are seemingly priceless,” says Melanie Gerlis, an art market columnist and author, to the Guardian’s Tim Jonze.

“To many people, the concept of paying anything more than the value of paint on canvas is baffling,” she tells the Guardian. “And yet there are plenty of people in the art world elite who spend thousands and even millions on paintings. Cattelan is pushing this idea to its logical conclusion.”

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.