En exhibitor in 2019 at Art Basel Miami, under the title Actor, a simple banana bought at a local market and attached to the wall of the Perrotin gallery stand with a piece of thick silver tape, Maurizio Cattelan had made a buzz. Then a scandal started when the gallerist announced that he had sold the first two copies (there are three, plus two “artist’s proofs”) for 120,000 dollars (113,907 euros), the third for 140,000 – a kind of bonus for the two fastest buyers. Everyday life New York Post then titrated into one : “The art world is going crazy…” It will have to show imagination: one of the specimens in question was sold on Wednesday evening at Sotheby’s in New York for 5.2 million dollars (4.7 million euros), “hammer price” as they say during auctions, a formula that now rings truer, or $6.2 million (€5.8 million) with costs.
Seven bidders competed for it. Estimated by the auction house at between $1 million and $1.5 million – meaning they already had buyers in that range, which still represents ten times its original price – at a price of $800,000 (€759,000), the fruit is assembled in six minutes until the final prize. Its new owner is the Chinese Justin Sun. The Hong Kong-based founder of the TRON platform made his fortune in cryptocurrencies, which have appreciated significantly since the election of Donald Trump.
Sell virtual
This is not the billionaire’s first foray into the extreme avant-garde of the art market: already in 2021, he was the underbidder of the sale at Christie’s Daily: first 5000 daysa work by Beeplereal name Mike Winkelmann, an American digital artist. Guaranteed by a NFT (Non Fungible Token), a kind of digital certificate of authenticity, the work, which is a collage of images already posted online by the artist, had reached the incredible sum of 69.34 million dollars (65.83 million euros ). So even though he didn’t win the auction, Justin Sun showed that he can already rise to the top.
For what reason? Mr. Sun himself explained it, in a message posted on X after the sale: “I am delighted to announce that we have successfully acquired Maurizio Cattelan’s iconic work, Actorfor $6.2 million. It’s not just a work of art; is a cultural phenomenon that bridges the world of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community. » Because, as for Daily: first 5000 daysthe value of Actor does not live in the object – Justin Sun also announced his intention to eat the banana, in which he would not be the first, two people already doing it without authorization – but in the certificate of authenticity that accompanies it (as well as assembly instructions, etc.). This is not an NFT (non-fungible tokens, or “non-fungible tokens” in French), but in a paper version, yet the spirit is the same. Both sell virtual. It’s a principle as old as conceptual art and can be traced all the way back to Marcel Duchamp, or even further if we consider that what gives a work value is the artist’s notoriety. This is what makes a painting almost entirely restored but attributed Leonardo da Vinci, can be sold for 450 million dollars.
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