Image via Shutterstock
During Miami’s Art Basel last year, Maurizio Cattelan
debuted his artwork
Comedian, which is a lavishly-priced banana stuck onto the wall with a duct tape. Three versions of the piece were sold, with the first two priced at US$120,000 each and the third for US$150,000.
Now, one of it will be displayed at New York’s Guggenheim Museum after it received the artwork as an anonymous donation.
The artwork had caused a ruckus and earned notoriety for being overly simple. Artist David Datuna even grabbed the banana, peeled it, and ate it in front of the crowd as part of his performance piece, titled
Hungry Artist, after he claimed that he did not destroy the artwork because the banana itself was “the idea.”
The museum has received the
Comedian piece along with a certificate of authenticity, which instructs the installation process. Some of the details include having the banana placed 175cm (5.74ft) from the ground and changing it every seven to 10 days.
“We are grateful recipients of the gift of Comedian, a further demonstration of the artist’s deft connection to the history of modern art,” Guggenheim director Richard Armstrong told the
New York Times. “Beyond which, it offers little stress to our storage.”
The museum recently announced that it will reopening on 3 October 2020 after shutting down due to the
coronavirus pandemic.
[via
Dazed, cover image via
Shutterstock]