🧵 The Banana Taped To Wall Saga
Another interesting story for you - the great banana-art saga of 2019 - arguably the most meme - worthy moment in contemporary art history! 🍌
In December 2019, Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan unveiled "Comedian" at Art Basel Miami Beach - a regular banana duct-taped to a wall. The piece immediately became a viral sensation, with the first edition selling for $120,000. Yes, in this economy, someone paid six figures for what looked like a forgotten lunch item.
The internet EXPLODED. Social media filled with people taping random objects to their walls: staplers, pickles, Airpods, even their pets (don't worry, they used safe tape!). The hashtag #cattelanbanana took over Instagram, with everyone from art students to corporate brands getting in on the joke. Even Brooke Shields got involved, posting a pic of herself with a banana taped to her forehead.
Then came the plot twist! Performance artist David Datuna walked up to the banana in full view of horrified gallery-goers, peeled it off the wall, and ate it while filming himself. He called his guerrilla performance "Hungry Artist" and declared, "I love Maurizio Cattelan's artwork and I really love this installation. It's very delicious." The gallery staff's faces were priceless - imagine having to explain to your boss that someone just ate your $120k artwork!
The memes reached new heights. Even Popeyes got in on the action, creating an ad with a chicken sandwich taped to a wall titled "The Sandwich" listed for $120,003.99 (three cents more than the banana).
But hey, that actually wasn't the end of the world for the artist and the buyer. The piece wasn't ruined when Datuna ate it. Why? Because buyers weren't purchasing the actual banana - they were buying a certificate of authenticity and a 14-page installation manual detailing the exact requirements for displaying the work, including:
The precise angle of the banana (37 degrees)
The specific type of duct tape (grey)
The height at which it should be placed
Instructions to replace the banana every 7-10 days
The whole thing got so out of hand that the gallery had to remove the piece early due to the massive crowds creating a safety hazard. They literally had to post signs saying "The banana is secured by Basel police" - a sentence nobody ever expected to read.
The saga spawned countless art world inside jokes. And because the internet never disappoints, someone created a "Banana Taped to Wall" cryptocurrency token. Because of course they did. 2019 was wild.
Fun fact: Cattelan came out of retirement to create this piece. Before this, he was most famous for creating an 18-karat solid gold toilet titled "America" that was later stolen from Churchill's birthplace.
And just when we thought the banana saga couldn't get any more outrageous, in March 2024, "Comedian" made headlines again when Christie's auction house sold the piece for a whopping $390,000 - the pre-sale estimate. JUST KIDDING! It actually sold for $6.2 MILLION! That's a 5,000% increase from its original price. For reference, you could buy approximately 2.5 million actual bananas for that amount.
From $120,000 to $6.2 million in five years - this might be the most successful banana ripening in history. As one art critic perfectly put it:
"In the art world, money has officially gone bananas.”
$6.2 million guys.
$6.2 million.