It has been more than two years ago that some ‘artist’ taped a banana to a wall and presented this as a real work of art.
According to galerieperrotin Maurizio Cattelan’s new sculpture ‘Comedian’ at Art Basel Miami marks the artist’s first major debut at an art fair in over 15 years!
Comprised of a real banana affixed to the wall with a piece of duct tape, this new work is no different than Cattelan’s hyper-realistic sculptures lampooning popular culture and offer a wry commentary on society, power, and authority. In the same vein as Cattelan’s America (2016), this piece offers insight into how we assign worth and what kind of objects we value. The idea of this work came to the artist’s mind a year ago. Back then, Cattelan was thinking of a sculpture that was shaped like a banana. Every time he traveled, he brought a banana with him and hung it in his hotel room to find inspiration. He made several models: first in resin, then in bronze and in painted bronze for finally coming back to the initial idea of a real banana. Discover it in 📍 Perrotin Booth D24, Art Basel Miami Beach, 📆 December 5 – 8, 2019
All according to galerieperrotin
This is all rather weird to begin with, but the madness does not stop there. This piece of art has been sold three times for $120,000.- (or more) according to Huffpost. Estimated costs:
- Banana 🍌 : $1.00
- Duct tape 🩹: $ 0.20
Total costs $ 1.20. Price / cost ratio 100,000❗
And that times three, of course.
But now, the story takes a twist…
An artist claims Maurizio Cattelan copied his banana artwork. And now Maurizio is being sewed for plagiarism by Joe Morford, an artist from Glendale, California.
“I did this in 2000. But some dude steals my junk and pimps it for 120K+ in 2019,” Morford wrote in a public Facebook post in 2019 with an image of the artwork. “Plagiarism much?”
Joe Morford
Morford is seeking damages over $390,000 — the total amount of Cattelan’s sales for three editions of the artworks — as well as court costs and travel expenses.
