Basel Banana Art

The most talked about piece of art in this year’s Art Basel show in Miami is a banana and some duct tape put together with the imagination of a well-known artist. The banana was duct-taped to a wall — no frame, no paint. Only one banana, ripe enough to eat, presented as a work of art called “Comedian” by Maurizio Cattelan. There were two editions of the “concept art” and each sold for $120,000. There may be another priced at $150,000. There are no suggestions for how to conserve the banana once it starts to decay and shrivel, but the buyers were told that they could replace the banana as needed. Too bad there wasn’t a banana sticker like the ones I collect!