Neighborhood riffs on a $6.2 million banana

After the sale of a banana duct taped to a wall sold at Sotheby’s last week for $6.2 million (including fees), a couple folks in the neighborhood seized the moment.

First I spotted the Balloon Saloon version on Instagram, which they note comes in at a cool $18.

And then on Lispenard, the real thing — albeit with some extra tape.

The piece, by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and titled “Comedian,” was first shown in 2019 at Art Basel Miami. It appears as a fresh banana affixed to a wall with duct tape, but as a work of conceptual art, it consists of a certificate of authenticity with detailed diagrams and instructions for its proper display. Three editions were sold then for $120,000; number two was resold at Sotheby’s to the cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun. Soon afterward, he ate the banana onstage, comparing it to a crypto asset and saying, “the real value is the concept itself”.

And in an only-in-Tribeca moment, as I was taking the picture on Lispenard, a woman walked by and said she had seen the real thing in Miami!

 

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