The installation “Comic” by Italian conceptualist Maurizio Cattelan, which is an ordinary banana on the wall, secured with tape, is being prepared for sale at the prestigious sotheby's auction, pravilamag.ru reports with reference to CNN.
The auction will be held in November this year in New York. Experts estimate the cost of the unusual work of art in the range of one to one and a half million dollars. The future owner will receive not only the art object itself, including a banana and tape, but also an official certificate of authenticity along with detailed instructions for exhibiting. According to the instructions, the installation must be placed at a strictly defined height – 175 cm from the floor, and the fruit itself must be replaced every 7-10 days.
Before the auction, the famous work will go on a world tour: it will be seen by residents of eight megacities, including the cultural capitals of London, Paris, Milan, as well as Hong Kong and Dubai.
The history of "Comic" began in 2019, when Cattelan created three identical copies of the installation. Two of them found buyers at the exhibition at a price of 120 thousand dollars each. The third copy was later purchased by an unknown patron for 150 thousand dollars and donated to the Guggenheim Museum in the USA. The work caused heated discussions in the art community about the boundaries of contemporary art.
The installation gained particular fame after the unexpected performance of the artist David Datuna at the Art Basel exhibition in Miami Beach. Despite the fact that the work had already been sold to a French collector, Datuna, having visited the exhibition, demonstratively took a banana off the wall and ate it, calling his action “Hungry Artist”. At the same time, he emphasized his respect for the work of Cattelan.
