NEW YORK — A banana duct-taped to a wall—Maurizio Cattelan’s conceptual artwork titled Comedian—has sold for an astonishing $6.2 million at Sotheby’s fall art auction on Wednesday.
Originally expected to fetch up to $1.5 million, the piece sparked a bidding war among seven contenders before the hammer came down at $5.2 million. With fees, the final price climbed to $6.2 million.
Sotheby’s confirmed that the winning bid was placed on behalf of Justin Sun, a Chinese collector and founder of the cryptocurrency platform TRON.
The artwork concluded a global tour across nine cities, attracting over 12,000 visitors in the two weeks leading up to the auction, according to the auction house.
Cattelan’s Comedian has sparked debate about the value and definition of art since its debut at Art Basel Miami in 2019, where it originally sold for $120,000.
