Would You Buy This Banana for $6 Million?
On art, investments, and the power of the absurd
There’s real power in the absurd.
It seemed absurd when Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan replaced one of the Guggenheim’s toilets with a fully-functioning gold one in 2016. Then he titled the project America and it became something beyond absurd — something provocative.
When Cattelan duct-taped a ripe banana to a wall at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair in 2019, it again seemed absurd — even more so because of the accompanying six-figure price tag. And then the absurdity grew when another artist — performance artist David Datuna — took the banana from the wall, peeled it, and ate it in from of stunned onlookers.
That performance (which some may think of more as a “stunt”) only propelled the banana’s notoriety, cementing it in the cultural zeitgeist and no doubt helping to propel the sale of all three “editions” of the banana at Art Basel. Two were sold for $120,000 and a third was sold to the Guggenheim Museum, for an undisclosed sum.
Why would someone buy a banana for $120,000? social media users bemoaned.
After all, the buyers of the three editions of the banana were given just that — a banana, and a piece of duct tape, along with instructions on how to install the piece on the wall. The artwork is conceptual in nature, “and the actual physical materials are replaced with every installation,” per CNN.
In other words, these are real bananas we’re talking about — which means they will rot, and then… there will be nothing left, until the fruit is replaced.
Fast-forward to Wednesday, Nov. 20, and one of those $120,000 bananas (or, at least, one of its replacements) was put up for auction, via Sotheby’s. And it smashed estimates, with bidding starting at $800,000 and eventually ending at $6.2 million.
Why would some buy a banana for $6.2 million?
As the Sotheby’s auctioneer described, the banana is “iconic” and “disruptive,” but it also…. doesn’t exist. The physical artwork itself rots, and is replaced by a grocery-store banana. So it’s really not a banana that’s being sold — it’s an idea.
In this way, the banana is akin to an NFT, a digital work that could technically be replicated but only one person has access to the original (and that access is really just in the form of bragging rights, or some documents illustrating ownership).
The winning bidder of the $6.2 million banana, by the way, is Justin Sun, a Chinese art collector and the founder of a cryptocurrency platform — so I imagine the idea of a “disruptive” piece of art — and investing in something that doesn’t exist, tangibly, resonated with him.
The best part about the banana, in my opinion, is that it gets us all to talk about art and investments. I don’t think I would spend $6 million on a banana but, if I could go back to 2019, I would sure as heck buy it for $120,000, knowing that I could that 50X investment in a few years.
Art can be a very worthy investment, as I well know. I obviously buy a lot of vintage art, furniture (which is also a type of art), and decor, but I also collect new art, and I do so intentionally. I recently purchased a limited-edition work by artist Marilyn Minter, someone who I admire greatly. The works sold out in about two hours but it’s now one month later, and some of them are already up for auction (I bought mine for $1,250, and one from the same series just sold at auction for around $5,000). I’ll be holding on to mine, but it’s a good lesson that sometimes art can pay dividends far greater than a traditional financial investment.
I say this all the time but I’ll repeat it here: scarcity is a commodity. Look at the sneakerhead community, or even the millions of people paying top-dollar for Eras tickets. They are paying so much, because there is only a limited number.
Another worthy investment, in my opinion, would be a Bottega Veneta x Flos lamp. The brand just unveiled this limited-edition series, a reimagining of Gino Sarfatti’s iconic Model 600 lamp, but designed in Bottega’s iconic woven leather. The lamps are undeniably chic! And expensive … though, being limited edition, I imagine we will see some of these on Chairish and 1st Dibs and eBay over the next few years — and likely for more than their current price tag.
And the best part about buying a lamp, or a limited-edition printed artwork? It won’t rot on your wall. Even if it doesn’t increase in value the way the banana did, you’ll still have something pretty to look at.
Of course, that’s not really the point of the banana.
In fact, the artist himself has made clear that the now-viral artwork is explicitly “not a joke,” saying in a 2021 interview it is meant to serve as “a reflection on what we value.”
That the banana art is titled Comedian is no accident, of course. I think the joke is on all of us for doubting its cultural significance the first time around.
Brands have already launched their Black Friday deals (it gets earlier and earlier every year, doesn’t it?) and some of my faves have some pretty steep discounts. Kule, which makes the best and most fun t-shirts and socks, is doing 30% off site-wide with code EARLY30.
Elemis, maker of my all-time favorite day cream and resurfacing pads, is doing 25% off site-wide and including a 5-piece gift when you spend over $175 on their site. Promo code is HIFALL.
Finding Ferdinand is offering 10% off site-wide with the promo code VIRGINIA10. I adore their lip balms and gift sets, which I included in my gift guide.
And I’ll leave you with this….
PLEASE Help me understand. If you bought the banana in 2019, how could you then resell it now for a profit? The banana rots and goes bye bye. What am I missing? Thank you!
This is what is tainting the art world—the banana and Jeff Koons!