The $6 Million Banana’s Appeal

Summary

The $6 Million Banana’s Appeal: A Deep Dive into Art, Perception, and Market Dynamics

Introduction

In the episode titled "The $6 Million Banana’s Appeal" from The Journal, hosted by Ryan Knutson and Kelly Crow of The Wall Street Journal, listeners are taken on an intriguing journey through the unconventional art piece known as "Comedian." This episode explores the creation, reception, and ultimate auctioning of a banana duct-taped to a wall, unraveling its significance within the art market and broader cultural conversations.

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1. The Genesis of the Banana Art

Kelly Crow recounts her first encounter with the iconic banana at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019:

"And I saw a little half circle of people I call, you know, little lookyloos, just taking pictures of it... I logged it, and then I moved on." [00:31]

Initially perceived as a quirky addition to a high-end art fair, the banana, titled "Comedian," commanded a price tag of $120,000. Crow reflects on the art world's initial dismissiveness:

"We totally missed the point, which is that the entire rest of the art world thinks that the art world is an entire, you know, rigged game and a scam and a joke." [01:23]

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2. Understanding "Comedian": The Art Behind the Banana

Delving deeper, Kelly Crow explains the conceptual framework of "Comedian":

"The piece is called Comedian, and what it actually is is a real banana and, you know, a stretch of duct tape." [04:09]

Purchasers receive a 14-page instruction manual serving as both a certificate of authenticity and guidelines for displaying the banana. These instructions emphasize the ephemeral nature of the artwork, with directives such as:

"The banana needs to be sort of arcing to the right, not the left. And it needs to be vertical, so not like a smile. It needs to be upright." [04:42]

Crow highlights the intentional simplicity and audacity of the piece, likening its value to that of renowned artists like Picasso:

"The whole construct of art, is that we, as a society decide to agree that something that maybe inherently has very minimal value has a cultural value way outstripping the materials that were used to make it." [16:15]

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3. The Art Market's Turbulent Landscape

At the time of Art Basel Miami Beach, the art market was experiencing a downturn, with sales plummeting and prices for top artists dropping by as much as 50%. Crow attributes this slump to various macroeconomic factors:

"War and elections and, you know, the pandemic and these macroeconomic factors... can cause collectors, even if they're the world's wealthiest people... to feel a little sensitive to sort of splurge." [09:12]

In response, Sotheby's sought to reinvigorate the market by leveraging the viral fame of "Comedian," aiming to inject fun and spectacle back into art auctions.

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4. The Spectacular Auction at Sotheby's

The episode vividly describes the memorable auction event where "Comedian" was sold:

"The scene was so ridiculous, everyone's cell phones went up... These cynical art dealers... could not resist the urge to snap a little picture of that thing on the turntable." [11:36]

Ultimately, the banana sold for an astonishing $5.2 million, culminating in a total of $6.2 million after taxes and fees. The buyer, Justin Sun, co-founder of the cryptocurrency platform Tron, chose to pay in cryptocurrency, bridging the worlds of traditional art and digital assets:

"That concept, same thing. Yep. That clicked for him in big ways, and he found that very profound that this artwork actually operated just like things on the blockchain do." [13:30]

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5. Implications for the Art Market and Beyond

The successful sale of "Comedian" signals a resurgence of optimism within the art market. Crow interprets the auction as evidence that:

"It's not dead, and that markets are always going to fluctuate... But I think it definitely made this really fun." [14:38]

Moreover, the episode draws parallels between "Comedian" and NFTs, both relying on certificates of authenticity and the value derived from collective societal agreement rather than the intrinsic material worth.

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6. Final Reflections: The Value of Art

Concluding the conversation, Kelly Crow offers a philosophical take on the art market's dynamics:

"The art market and the art world operate on an intellectual and comedic and financial plane that strike the rest of us as completely insane." [16:15]

She emphasizes that the true value of art lies in its cultural significance and the collective agreement on its worth, rather than the physical materials used to create it.

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Conclusion

"The $6 Million Banana’s Appeal" serves as a compelling exploration of how a simple piece of duct-taped fruit can challenge and reflect the complexities of the art world. Through insightful discussions and notable anecdotes, the episode illuminates themes of perception, value, and market behavior, offering listeners a nuanced understanding of what drives the art market and the societal constructs that underpin it.

Transcript

[Ryan Knudsen]

Can you tell me the story of when you first heard about the banana?

[Kelly Crow]

Okay, so my beginnings with the banana was the opening day of Art Basel Miami beach in 2019.

[Ryan Knudsen]

That's our colleague Kelly Crow, who covers the art market. Art Basel Miami is a big, high end art fair that happens every December. Kelly was there walking around, checking out the sculptures and paintings.

[Kelly Crow]

And then I did see this banana duct taped to a wall. And I saw a little half circle of people I call, you know, little lookyloos, just taking pictures of it. And they were not the types to buy the work. They were just having fun and posing and taking selfies with it. And I remember in that moment, like, oh, isn't that. Isn't that cute? But I logged it, and then I moved on.

[Ryan Knudsen]

So, like, you didn't. You didn't get a selfie with the banana?

[Kelly Crow]

I didn't. I didn't get my selfie.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Back in 2019, when it first showed up at Art Basel, Kelly and others in the art world were somewhat dismissive of the banana, which was listed for sale at $120,000. It seemed just like another quirky piece of contemporary art. She didn't think it would be that.

[Kelly Crow]

Big of a deal, and we totally missed the point, which is that the entire rest of the art world thinks that the art world is an entire, you know, rigged game and a scam and a joke. And did the emperor, like, even wear clothes to the fair that day because somebody duct taped a banana to a wall and asked $120,000 for it. And that moment probably did need to stop and be reckoned with in real time.

[Ryan Knudsen]

While Kelly brushed past it, lots of other people stayed and gawked. The banana duct taped to a wall became a viral sensation, and that was just the beginning.

[Kelly Crow]

So over the past five years, the banana has gone on to have an incredibly strange afterlife. Several editions have sold, you know, between 120 and $150,000. One has since gotten donated to the Guggenheim, one of the most important museums in New York City. Others have gone on to become basically deified in meme form. And it ultimately culminated in an auction at Sotheby's.

[Auctioneer]

And I'm selling it here. The world's most expensive banana at 5,200,000. These are words I never thought I'd say. $5,000,000 for a banana.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan knudsen. It's Friday, December 6th. Coming up on the show, what one banana can tell us about the art market. The Power of perception and maybe even the economy.

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[Ryan Knudsen]

Okay, so before we dive into the flesh of the banana, can you explain exactly what this piece of art is?

[Kelly Crow]

You want me to peel it back a little bit? Is that what you're asking me to do? Right.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Yes, please. Yeah. Just. Yeah.

[Kelly Crow]

What does the banana tell us? Is that what you're asking?

[Ryan Knudsen]

Who was on the banana? Phone, if you will.

[Kelly Crow]

Well, let's try to run through all the puns we can possibly think of.

[Ryan Knudsen]

We should. We have to, actually. I don't know why I wasn't more prepared with this.

[Kelly Crow]

I don't want to slip up and miss any. Okay, so the piece is called Comedian, and what it actually is is a real banana and, you know, a stretch of duct tape. And it needs to be on a wall. But when you, as the owner buy this piece, what you actually get are a 14 page list of instructions that sort of doubles as a certificate of authenticity.

[Ryan Knudsen]

14 pages?

[Kelly Crow]

Yeah. Yeah. I think there are some illustration, some illustrations, and what the artist wants to illustrate are a few of the rules that accompany the work. Which means you go out and you buy your own banana and your own duct tape, and you can create the work anywhere you want, but it needs to be on a white wall. It needs to be a certain number of inches up from the floor, so roughly eye level. The banana needs to be sort of arcing to the right, not the left. And it needs to be vertical, so not like a smile. It needs to be upright. And then the duct tape has to be, you know, t.

[Ryan Knudsen]

The instructions are closely guarded, and the general public isn't allowed to see them. It also serves as the main proof of ownership. Are there instructions in there for what you're supposed to do when the banana eventually rots? After, like, a few days?

[Kelly Crow]

Yeah. After a few days, you take it down and you can put up another one. Yeah.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Huh.

[Kelly Crow]

It's ever evolving. Mm.

[Ryan Knudsen]

What is stopping me from just going to the store and buying duct tape and a banana and taping it up at eye level and saying that I now own the banana art?

[Kelly Crow]

So absolutely nothing, except that you could have Done the same thing with, you know, a Campbell's can of tomato soup, but that doesn't make it a Warhol. Right. So you don't have the version that the artist called art.

[Ryan Knudsen]

The artist behind Comedian is a man named Maurizio Catalan. He's an Italian artist who became famous for creating outrageous works and sculptures, like a series of taxidermied horses hanging from a ceiling and a statue of the Pope getting hit by a meteor. In 2011, Catalan told the art world he had retired. But he didn't stay on the sidelines for long. And in 2019, he got an idea.

[Kelly Crow]

He's noticing that this sort of never ending stream of art fairs just keeps getting more and more populated with big, splashy abstract painting, figurative painting. And he starts to get annoyed that this, the entire art world is just sort of glomming onto all these splashy, pretty paintings. And where's the bite, right? Where's the provocation? And so he comes out of retirement to put this banana on the wall. And it really was kind of his, like, middle finger to the art market. He really was trying to say, look, you know, this entire fair is going to be brimming with pretty paintings. So why don't I just cut through all the noise of that and I'll just do something simple and a little bit provoc and I will put a banana on the wall and I will call it art and let's just see what sort of, you know, grenade goes off or not.

[Ryan Knudsen]

The grenade definitely went off. Comedian went viral at that 2019 Art Basel. It drew massive crowds and got turned into memes and splashed onto T shirts. Catalan made five versions of the banana and each one sold. Why do you think this piece of art resonates so much with people?

[Kelly Crow]

I think it was just funny. It was funny and simple and audacious. And the idea that an artist would call this art, the idea that it would have value, and the idea that other people would agree with him that it has value, there's just a level of absurdity there that he acknowledges. He was trying to lean into that.

[Ryan Knudsen]

How did he feel about the fact that this middle finger was like being celebrated?

[Kelly Crow]

I think he was on the one hand, I'm sure, very tickled because he had caused a stir. And that's really what he's always wanted to do as an artist, is sort of make waves and start a conversation. And I think he was certainly pleased, certainly pleased by that because that is part of what he wanted to do was just to sort of shake things up. A little bit, and he certainly did.

[Ryan Knudsen]

After the break, the banana arrives in New York and tests a slippery art market. The banana hit the auction houses when people on the art market were feeling pretty rotten. It had been in a slump for about two years. With sales down across the board. Prices for the world's top artists have fallen by as much as half.

[Kelly Crow]

So there are various reasons why art sells and doesn't sell, but the art market is cyclical like anything else, right? And there are certain years where everyone is feeling flush and the world's wealthy feel like it's a good idea to buy and sell art at the very upper reaches and everything's fine, and the art world feels like a party. And then there are things like war and elections and, you know, the pandemic and these macroeconomic factors that. That can cause collectors, even if they're the world's wealthiest people, these are billionaires. They have money in good markets and bad, right? They have it, but they feel a little sensitive to sort of splurge. They just. It's a confidence game, right? How confident do they feel spending millions of dollars on art? And so the market's been sort of in a downturn for the last couple of years. And the auction houses, who are market makers were probably behind doors, were probably in a little bit of a panic of just like, how do we change this narrative to do that?

[Ryan Knudsen]

Sotheby's decided to look for a spectacle and approached one of the owners of Comedian.

[Kelly Crow]

How do we make the idea of buying and selling art fun again? Because this is meant to be kind of a respite for the world's wealthy, right? Like, so I feel like it was really a marketing bonanza and sort of a stroke of genius on Sotheby's part to go out and seek this banana, because they knew that it would change the narrative, and. Or at least I think they hoped it did.

[Ryan Knudsen]

How did this. How did the auction go?

[Kelly Crow]

I mean, it was completely unforgettable.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Was it bananas?

[Kelly Crow]

It was bananas. B A N A N A S. Absolutely. B A N A N A S. Exactly. I've been humming that for days. So when I walked into the auction room, the anticipation was building. But people didn't have to wait too long. And the artworks kind of come out on this thing. Like these sort of. The turntable sort of swiveled, right? And then out came this banana taped to the wall with one, you know, very tickled art handler standing there like Vanna White, you know, beside this banana.

[Auctioneer]

The viral sensation that has skyrocketed to universal recognition when it was first exhibited at the Art Bath on Miami beach in December 2019. Maurizio Catalan's comedian. Here it is in all its splendor.

[Kelly Crow]

And the scene was so ridiculous, everyone's cell phones went up. Like, I. It was like, whoosh. This vertical whoosh of. I mean, cynical art dealers, folks who've been buying and selling art for decades. None of them could resist the urge to snap a little picture of that thing on the turntable.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Did you. Did you put your phone up and take a picture of the banana?

[Kelly Crow]

Oh, dude, you know, I was already Instagram living it. I mean, I was theirs. Yeah, you got your.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Did you get. Finally get your banana?

[Kelly Crow]

Yeah, I finally got my moment with the dang banana. I mean, of course, I had it with, like, six or seven hundred people in this auction room.

[Auctioneer]

Don't let it slip away. 5,100,000. They're not getting these jokes. 5,000,000 what you do, but 5,100,000.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Don't worry, Mr. Auctioneer, we got your jokes. There were seven different bitters for the banana, and eventually one emerged as the winner.

[Auctioneer]

The Catalan is yours. Congratulations. Thank you very much indeed.

[Ryan Knudsen]

After taxes and fees, the total bill was $6.2 million. The buyer said he intended to pay for it in cryptocurrency. Who bought the banana?

[Kelly Crow]

So the winner of the banana is this young guy in his early 30s named Justin Sun. And he is the co founder of a cryptocurrency platform called Tron. And he is a very colorful character who sort of came into the art world back in the beginning days of the NFT boom. You know, back when Beeples were, you know, JPEGs were selling for $70 million. You remember that, right? During the pandemic. So a lot of these guys sort of came into this world of collecting back, and they sort of stuck around.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Yeah, I was just gonna say, in some ways, the banana reminds me of NFTs, because an NFT, it's just this digital piece of art, but the thing that you own is the certificate that proves that you own it. And the banana's kind of the same way. It's ephemeral, it's disposable, but it's the certificate that you have that says, I own that banana.

[Kelly Crow]

That concept, same thing. Yep. That clicked for him in big ways, and he found that very profound that this artwork actually operated just like things on the blockchain do. And for him, that bridge, right. Was. Was so enticing, he just felt like he had to own it.

[Ryan Knudsen]

After Winning comedian at the Sotheby's auction, Sun ate the banana. At a live stream press conference, he said, quote, it's much better than other bananas. Comedian was one of many big sales and a surprisingly good month for the art world. November, which is usually an important bellwether for art markets, saw more than a billion dollars worth of art change hands at the world's auction houses. So what do you think this auction says about the state of the art market right now?

[Kelly Crow]

So it says one, that it's not dead, and that markets are always going to fluctuate, and they're probably object driven as much as they are driven by these macroeconomic factors. But I think it definitely made this really fun. And for the auction houses, that's really important because they're meant to be this playground for the world's wealthy, right? And everyone is really closely tracking how the world's wealthy feel. Because, you know, if wealthy people feel like the economy is in an upward trajectory, they can really throw their weight around. And so I think people are maybe more cautiously optimistic about where the art market is going from here, and they have some fun track record to point to, you know, in the next go around.

[Ryan Knudsen]

So, Kelly, if this banana sold for $6.2 million total, if you had $6.3 million, would you have bid on the banana?

[Kelly Crow]

Oh, Ryan, that's not even a question I allow myself to go to. I'm a reporter. Yeah, I know. I do. I. It's like an impossible question for me. Like, I think, you know, when I head to Art Basel Miami beach, will I give some extra pause to any groups of people that I see loitering around anything, like, yes, I will be more tempted to stop and make sure I'm not missing the banana boat, if you will.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Well done. That was excellent. Any other final thoughts before we split?

[Kelly Crow]

Yeah. The banana tells us, right, that the art market and the art world operate on an intellectual and comedic and financial plane that strike the rest of us as completely insane. And the truth is, like, if you're gonna go and buy a piece of canvas and some tubes of oil paint and then slather it on a thing, it should probably only be worth, you know, a few dozen dollars. Like, when you start to think about the materials that become art, it's just paint. But then we collectively as a society decide that that picture painted by, like, some guy named Pablo Picasso, right, turns out to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, right? Or Da Vinci. You know, like, this is the whole construct of art, is that we, as a society decide to agree that something that maybe inherently has very minimal value has a cultural value way outstripping the materials that were used to make it. And so that is kind of the bargain that we make with all artworks. It's just rarely that it's, you know, something that can rot after a few days.

[Ryan Knudsen]

That's all for today. Friday, December 6th the Journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. The show is made by Katherine Brewer, Jonathan Davis, Pia Gadkari, Rachel Humphries, Matt Kwong, Kate Linebaugh, Jessica Mendoza, Annie Minoff, Laura Morris, Enrique Perez de la Rosa, Sarah Platt, Alessandra Rizzo, Alan Rodriguez Espinosa, Heather Rogers, Pierce Singh, Jivika Verma, Lisa Wang, Katherine Whalen, Tatiana Zamis and me, Ryan Knudsen, with help from Trina Menino. Our engineers are Griffin Tanner, Nathan Singapak and Peter Leonard. Our theme music is by so Wiley. Additional music this week from Peter Leonard, Bobby Lord, Nathan Singapok, Griffin Tanner and Blue Dot Sessions. Fact checking by Mary Mathis. Thanks for listening. See you Monday.