A man who initially sold a 35-cent banana was stunned and heartbroken to discover it had become part of a cryptocurrency artwork that sold at auction for $5.2 million.
Shah Alam, 74, works for $12 an hour at a fruit stand outside the Sotheby’s auction house on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun won a heated bidding war inside Sotheby’s on Wednesday, snapping up Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous ‘Comedian’ – perhaps the most expensive piece of fruit in the world.
The unusual installation, which consists of nothing more than a banana attached to a blank wall with regular duct tape, has become a sensation among art collectors.
The banana was bought for only 35 cents at the Alam stand. He learned of the outcome of the sale a few days later, having no idea he had sold a multi-million dollar banana, worth $6.2 million after auction fees.
‘I’m a poor man. I’ve never had so much money; “I’ve never seen so much money,” he told the newspaper New York Times.
Alam, who is nearly blind, left his job as a civil servant in Bangladesh in 2007 to move closer to his daughter on Long Island.
He lives in a $500-a-month apartment he shares with five other men in the Bronx and works 12 hours a day, earning just under $150 per shift.
A man who initially sold a 35-cent banana was stunned and heartbroken to discover it had become part of a cryptocurrency artwork that sold at auction for $5.2 million
Shah Alam, 74, works for $12 an hour at this fruit stand outside the Sotheby’s auction house on Manhattan’s Upper East Side
Alam, who has no memory of the sale, also doesn’t quite understand what’s so interesting about the art installation: ‘Those who bought it, what kind of people are they? Don’t they know what a banana is?’
The artist who created ‘Comedian’, Cattelan said he appreciates Alam’s ‘role’ in the sale.
‘The banana seller’s reaction moves me deeply and underlines how art can resonate in unexpected and profound ways. But art by its nature does not solve problems; if it were, it would be political.”
Sun, the man who bought the artwork, said something similar: “His role in this artwork is not taken lightly” and called it “poignant.”
Reacting to the news, A Gofundme was started to help Alam by an anonymous person who promised to match anyone who met the $5,000 goal.
The user, known only as ‘JS’, wrote: ‘Do we really want to live in a city where we can shake off a street vendor who is moved to tears by being the butt of a joke about an amount of wealth ? obscene to him as he celebrates some smartass for figuring out how to make $6 million off that joke? If this complete and gross indifference is not what ails us, then what is?’
He also denounced Cattelan’s statement, saying he essentially called Alam’s plight “none of my business.”
The crowdfunding has raised over $7,600, with ‘JS’ matching the first $5,000, meaning he already has over $12,000.
Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun won a heated bidding war, saying in a statement that Alam’s “role in this work of art is not taken lightly”
The stunning $6.2 million sale of a single banana tube taped to a wall at a New York auction has left many in the art world stunned – and not just because of the eye-watering price.
It was originally expected to sell for between $1 million and $1.5 million. Bidding started at $800,000, and the price quickly rose to a whopping $5.2 million – or $6.2 million when auction house costs were taken into account.
Sun, who founded the Tron blockchain network, outbid six other wealthy art lovers to secure the controversial piece.
“This is not just a work of art,” Sun told Sotheby’s after his splurge, as reported by Reuters.
“It represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes and the cryptocurrency community. I believe this piece will spark more thought and discussion in the future and become part of history.”
Three previous editions of the artwork have sold for more than $120,000, but this latest sale was even more bizarre.
In this case, the buyer did not even receive the original fruit.
Instead, they only received a “certificate of authenticity” that gives them permission to recreate the bizarre installation — or essentially buy their own banana to duct tape to the wall and call Comedian.
The artist who created ‘Comedian’ Cattelan said he appreciates Alam’s ‘role’ in sales
The stunning $6.2 million sale of a single banana tube taped to a wall at a New York auction has left many in the art world stunned – and not just because of the eye-watering price
Some art experts claim the piece is a brutal takedown of the art world, while others, such as Sotheby’s head of contemporary art David Galperin, call it “profound and provocative.”
“What Cattelan is really doing is holding a mirror up to the contemporary art world and asking questions, provoking reflection on the way we assign value to works of art, what we define as a work of art,” Galperin told the Associated Press.
Chloé Cooper Jones, associate professor at Columbia University School of the Arts, emphasized the context behind the artwork.
She said that if the artwork was just about understanding the insular, capitalist, art-collecting world, Cooper Jones said, “It’s not that interesting of an idea.”
Cattelan is considered a “trickster artist,” she said. ‘But his work is often at the intersection of humor and the deeply macabre.’
“He very often looks for ways to provoke us, not just for the sake of provocation, but to ask us to look at some of the darkest parts of history and of ourselves.”
She revealed perhaps a darker truth: the banana is not just a joke; it is a powerful symbol of global trade exploitation, imperialism and corporate greed.
“It would be difficult to think of a better, simpler symbol for global trade and all its exploitations than the banana,” said Cooper Jones.
If ‘Comedian’ wants people to think about their moral complicity in the production of objects they take for granted, then it’s at least a more useful tool or at least an additional kind of place you can go if it’s about the questions this work might ask,” she said.
In May, a South Korean art student who was “hungry” after skipping breakfast ate the banana that was part of the installation.
The masterpiece of ripe bananas was then pasted on the wall of the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul.
The student, Noh Huyn-soo, boldly stuck the peel on the wall after eating the banana. A new banana was then placed in the empty spot.
According to the museum, the banana should be replaced every two to three days.
Performance artist David Datuna had previously taken the banana off a wall in 2019, after the artwork had just sold for $120,000 at Art Basel in Miami.
The banana had been replaced at the time and no action was taken.
Cattelan is perhaps best known for his 18-carat, fully functioning gold toilet called ‘America’ that he once loaned to US President Donald Trump.
The toilet, worth about $5 to $6 million, was in the news again in September when four men were accused of stealing the item from Britain’s Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of wartime leader Winston Churchill, where it had been on display .