Maurizio Cattelan, the artist who sparked controversy after creating the banana taped to a wall, sold the work this week for $6.2 million.
The artist: the work with the penny stuck to the wall is a “challenge”/PHOTO: YouTube video capture hello Tv
About the opera, which he created five years ago, in 2019, he says that it is a “challenge” regarding the art world, according to Reuters. The work “Comedian” was purchased on Wednesday following an auction by Justin Sun, a Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur, for $6.2 million, writes News.ro.
“It is a challenge that invites us to reflect on the value of art and the dynamics of (this) market, causing us to ask ourselves what this work says about us as viewers”Cattelan said for the Italian daily La Repubblica.
The artwork cost Cattelan 25 cents to make. From pennies on Wednesday, it went up to $800,000, the starting price, with the final price reaching $5.2 million, plus the buyer’s fee.
“It is the market that decided to take a banana stuck to the wall so seriously. If the system is so fragile that it would slide on a banana peel, maybe it was already slippery“, added Cattelan.
The 64-year-old artist is known for his hyper-realistic installations and sculptures, which include a fake horse hanging from a ceiling, the late Pope John Paul II struck by a meteorite and a marble hand with a middle finger. erected in front of the Milan Stock Exchange.
“‘Comedian’ is a laugh against a tired system, an invitation to rediscover the power of irony and simplicity”the artist declared.
