'The tactics of a master mischief-maker': The hidden history of a controversial $6m banana

By sticking a banana to a wall with silver duct tape and calling it art, Maurizio Cattelan created one of the greatest cultural controversies of recent times. But the story behind Comedian reveals centuries of notoriety and shock tactics in art.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Bay and Travis Scott were among the celebrities at the VIP opening of Art Basel Miami Beach on 4 December 2019, the day that Comedian made its first appearance. 

Big price tags surrounded everyone at the glamorous art fair that morning. A Helen Frankenthaler painting was sold for around $1.65m ($2.16m or £2.14m today), and a Willem de Kooning was available to anyone with a spare $8m ($10.5m or £7.8m today). But for Sarah Cascone, a reporter for Artnet News, the key attraction was Maurizio Cattelan's latest artwork: a banana stuck to the wall with duct tape.

Later in the day, Cascone wrote the first substantial news story on it, informing readers that two editions of the fruit-based artwork had sold for $120,000 each. Within a few days the third and final edition was bought for $150,000. Each buyer received a certificate of authenticity and instructions on how to display it, including the need to replace the banana regularly.

Throughout the duration of Art Basel Miami Beach, hundreds of other visitors photographed the artwork and posted their reactions online. Within just a few days of its unveiling, Comedian had become a viral sensation, attracting scorn, amazement, laughter and a new subcategory of copycat meme involving duct tape and bananas. In the mainstream press, as well as blogs and YouTube videos, people battled over its aesthetic and intellectual value: those who most hated Comedian loved writing about it the most.

If it was Cattelan's intention to attract attention to himself, Comedian was a blistering success. Few other works of contemporary art have done what Comedian achieved in just a few hours: gaining fame beyond the art world citadel and becoming globally recognisable. Its renown helped bump up its market value even more. In 2024, the second of the three editions of Comedian was resold at auction for $6.24m (£4.88m). This once again triggered opinion writers, who raged at the wasteful sums of money now being thrown at Cattelan's artwork.

Yet the irony about Comedian is that everything that shocked people about it had been done before. And when you unpeel the artwork, it reveals the hidden tactics of a master mischief-maker and a dedicated student of the dark arts of notoriety.

A 400-year-old tradition of satire

One of his strategies is provocation. Cattelan clearly realised long ago that in the competitive creative industries, just being skilled or intelligent doesn't guarantee success. But sparking controversy attracts attention, which means a bigger audience and more potential commissions.

Art history proves the point. More than 400 years ago, Caravaggio split the opinions of his contemporaries with the groundbreaking levels of violence, sexual tension and darkness of his religious paintings, factors that brought him to international prominence. The artists of the 19th Century who are nowadays most valorised, such as JMW Turner,........

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